Dear Pappa....

This blog is very special to me, not because it is the first blog of the year 2025 but because it is on the 'Man I Love the most in this world', of course my Pappa! The blog is not on Amar Bhosale the person because that can be a novel, it is on Amar Bhosale the father, the best gift God gave me and my sister. I acknowledge that a blog on him would be too lengthy, but then being the daughter of the writer who is known for expressing anything crisply, this is a challenge I take up on myself, so let's get started! 

So once I saw a movie in which Amitabh Bachchan opens the fridge and it has pastries of all flavours in it, and I loved that scene, so I told my family about the movie and my favourite scene in the afternoon and in the evening when I opened our fridge Pappa had actually recreated that scene for me by keeping pastries of all flavours in the fridge just like that, and I was overjoyed by his gesture! And this is just one of the many memories that he has created for us. On my 13th birthday, because I am a stationary fanatic, he gifted me 13 different pens. So basically he is our Aladdin's Magic Lamp, we can literally wish for anything and trust him that he will get it for us!

 

Beyond these material gifts, the more precious and enduring gifts that he has given us is the culture, the discipline, the religiousness, the confidence and foremost his writing skill, for which I am forever grateful to him, as he has not forced anything explicitly, but let it embibe on us implicitly. Born in Pune, he is a true Punekar at heart and tongue (if you know, you know). I wish I could have 1% of his confidence, and that would be enough for me. He is an expert at breaking the ice and starting conversations with people he has met for the first time, from my friends to the friends of my grandparents and everyone in between.

 

The other day we had a little kid visiting us, after the kid left, our house was a mess and we were cleaning that up while he was looking at us, so I just asked him did he clean the mess we created as kids, and his reply to this question startled me, he said," I clean up your mess of thoughts every day". And that is for real, I take my complex problems about anything and everything to him and he is my free therapist, who solves all my psychological and philosophical problems by talking with me for hours together.

 

He is a well read man, from literature to world politics and from national news to movies and plays, he knows it all and even remembers it all. We can talk about international relations, national politics, history, literature, books, movies and plays. We both watch a lot of marathi plays, and then we discuss what we liked/disliked about it. And he always lets me buy as many books as I want, there is absolutely no upper limit to it, and I think that is a big privilege!

 

Missal Dates with Pappa!

Pappa takes us on impromptu street food and missal dates. For me a perfect Sunday is when I go with him to have our favourite missal pav followed by Hema chaha (tea) and then end the food trail by having the sweet gagga vada. He is a very sweet man, eats a lot of sweets and makes us eat too, and when we say we should not eat so much sweet, he has his fixed line, "This is the age, you should not think so much now, otherwise when will you have sweets, when you turn old?".

 

His acts of kindness, charity, helpfulness and being there for us at every big and small event of our lives is a constant. From school annual days to college inductions and from playschool to coaching classes to college he has literally picked and dropped us by going out of his way and rescheduling his schedule for us every time. Thank you is a very small word and he is a very big man for me, so I would simply say Pappa I love you! I am not sure about rebirths, but if they exist then I want you as my father in all of them!

 

Happy Reading,

 

-सिddhi Bhosale.

Pappa with the Blog!