On May 3rd, 2020, during the lockdown, we celebrated my dad’s 99th birthday.
After cutting the cake, we all sat down to have dinner together.
Later, around 9:30 pm, as usual, my dad, my wife, my older daughter, and I sat outside on the verandah.
Even though it was May, a hot summer month, there was a cool breeze in the air.
Suddenly, I asked my dad, “Dad, what’s your favorite childhood birthday memory?”
He looked at me for a moment, and I thought he hadn’t understood my question.
Just as I was about to repeat myself, he began talking.
He shared so many childhood stories that I had never heard before.
My dad is from Gujranwala, now in Pakistan. He’s a quiet, tall, strong man, and I’d never seen him talk so much in my life.
He spoke about his childhood, his school days, the pranks he played with his friends, and the fun times with his siblings and cousins. He came from a large joint family, and he was the second oldest out of 16 children from five families.
He told us about swimming competitions in the river between friends from different villages, how he was good at school and sports, but also a little mischievous.
He then told a story about the martyrdom of Shaheed Bhagat Singh when he was in class 4. He remembered joining the freedom struggle called by Gandhiji when he was 18. He was so involved in the struggle that he left his engineering studies to fight for independence.
In 1947, after India gained independence, the partition brought many challenges to his family. He was 25 years old then and traveled back and forth to Pakistan to bring his family members together and to help them rebuild after losing their ancestral home.
As he shared these stories with so much energy, I didn’t realize that it was already 1 am on May 4th, 2020. My wife and daughter had already gone to bed by then.
I told him it was getting late, and he looked up at the sky and said, “Will you bring my bed outside? I want to sleep here.”
I had never realized how important the little things are. Just one question, and so many stories came out.
For the first time, my dad made me understand: LIFE IS IN THE DETAILS.
When you look back at all the little joys in life, it feels fuller and more meaningful.
There’s a saying I don’t know who said, but it fits perfectly: “Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.”
God, I pray we are blessed to celebrate his 100th birthday on May 3rd, 2021.
“PS: FRIENDS, HE LEFT TO BE WITH HIS ALMIGHTY ON THURSDAY, MARCH 25TH, 2021.”
Thank you all for reading! I hope you all take something from this.