Thread by @thebetterindia

#FathersDay #FathersDay2021 #TheHeroWeKnow

"When I began first standard, at the age of five, I faced immense difficulty in learning.

I couldn't read what was on the blackboard, I couldn't read or write the alphabets properly and Maths was beyond me. (1/13)

My daily trips to school were a horror for me and I just wanted them to end. Being the genius that I am, I somehow made the assumption that since books and a bag were necessary for school, if I got rid of both of them, I wouldn't have to. (2/13)

So I came home one day with no books, no bag and no water bottle.
When my mom asked what happened, I proudly mentioned that I had tossed them out of the school bus window. (3/13)

My father, of whom I was terrified, was duly updated of the situation at my family's daily all-hands meet - dinner. (4/13)

He glared at me for a long while, as I tried my best to eat my food as innocently as any guilty criminal possibly could. But, instead of yelling, he very calmly asked me - "Why did you do it?" (5/13)

For every answer I gave, he had a further question. It as if he was slowly entering a rabbit hole, one question at a time.

Eventually, he ended by saying, "Fine. You don't have to go to school tomorrow. We shall go out."

I was thrilled, at least for a day. (6/13)

The outing turned out to be a trip to an eye clinic, where the doctor duly prescribed me glasses. As my father had guessed, I could not see the blackboard, quite literally, and reading small fonts made my eyes hurt. (7/13)

On the way back, my dad gave me an understanding of Karl Marx as well. That is, no revolution can succeed unless the means of production are controlled. (8/13)

I may have tossed out one set of books and a bag. But the supermarket had more. We duly bought a new set and I went back to school the next day. (9/13)

My learning difficulties never went away entirely. In fact I still find it hard to read alphabets, and am famous for my inability to focus on the topic at hand. But I did get an education in the end, and my life continued as smoothly as it could. (10/13)

I learnt something important from my dad that day. People do strange things. But the best way to fix a problem is to find out why someone did something and try to solve that, rather than focus on what they did. (11/13)

I have tried to live by this, & the many hundreds of other ideals he taught me, every day.

Thank you, appa. (12/13)

PS: It is equally important not to be gullible. My dad made sure I was not allowed to sit on the window side of the school bus until I reached high school."

- Vinayak Hegde (13/13)

@hegde_vb 🙂