Sloping on the road : Memories of my father : ( 1 )
Memories of my father whom i used to call as Papu lovingly.
My father has expired on 6th March, 1996. It was Holi on that day here in India. Holi is a festival of colour people celebrate here. And what a Holi to remember that year it was! My father’s name was Indra Kamal Borborah. He was an electrical engineer and had been working as Executive Engineer in Vigilance Department of the then Assam State Electricity Board. There are some scattered memories very precious for me of my father which is attempted to share here in a series of hubs. I used to call him as Papu instead of PAPA.
Those sweet Namrup days.....
My very early childhood memory was of our days in a small town called Namrup. My father was posted there and we stayed in a nice four bedroom house in a colony with large compound and a long entrance way. It was an Assam type house with long barandah both in front and back yard. In our back yard, father used to be proud of with a sprawling vegetable garden. All kind of seasonal vegetables we used to grow then. There were lots of fruit trees also around the whole campus. Front yard was adorned with nice seasonal flower garden. We used to have many evergreen potted plants also. There was a big community playground adjacent to our home which was also being used to play football by the neighbouring guys. We were a big group of children out there to enjoy our carefree childhood.
The big sloping on the road……….
There was this big sloping just in front of our home on the road. That is the first ever memory which caught my fancy in the earliest days of my life. The small town was hilly and a big sloping used to end just in front of our home. I do remember very nicely the way children used to fall down when they were learning to ride bicycles. But still I wonder why they had to climb down the sloping while they were still on learning mode! The many crying faces I used to see from the patio of our home. Almost every afternoon there used to be an incident of children falling down on that sloping and still they would again try the very next day.
When it came to me.....
Oh yes, even I fell down in that sloping once. Exactly like the other children and funnily enough, though I was hurt very much I did not cry there instead I started shouting after I was taken inside home. Then I immediately remembered the faces made by other children and biting my tongue I waited till I had been taken inside home. I had got hurt in knee and elbow. My father told me that it’s nice to learn to ride bicycle early after falling down and then I will remember it throughout my life. He had said me that, if I would have noticed the other children and from the scene of their falling down, I was to learn that I should not have tried in the sloping unless I was an expert. Then it would have been easier and not like that I needed to shout and cry.
Taking life on a ride ahead....
But he never discouraged me to ride bicycles. Likewise he told me that life is a road with sloping and one must try these only after we are expert in handling the brakes and the course of the bicycle. He made it a point that I must ride the red bicycle as soon as possible so that fear does not get into me. He had said, this is life ...so face it head on and enjoy the slopings even but never cease to go ahead. The mark in my knee, whenever I see takes me to that particular day and the way Father taught me about life. A simple lesson to ponder and the way he was preparing me to face life. I really enjoyed a lot riding the red bicycle all around the town and now also try to even enjoy the roads full with sloping of life.
Thank you my dear father, for teaching me the way to face the slopings on the road.
