My daughter is August born – a Leo and is my first child. I remember when the nurse came out with this little princess, she was quite awake with her eyes wide open, as if, telling all of us that she had good nine-month rest and that was enough. It was quite a nostalgic moment.
Before she was even born, I had decided to have a long conversation with her, when she would come back from the hospital to her home.
Like any other new born baby, she also used to sleep whole day and so was awake whole night.
So, we – father and daughter, decided to speak in the night, when everyone would be sleeping – primarily her mother – who is also August born – a Leo.
As expected, my daughter was awake and I also had no plans to sleep. Whole day I had prepared my speech for her. I don’t remember spending so much time in front of my washroom mirror as I had spent on that day – What will I say, how will I say, and most importantly, how much will I say? Being a communicator, we inculcate that habit of excess speaking.
If I may say so, my initial conversation with her had started much before she was born. When her heart, brain, hands, legs, face, everything was developing and taking shapes – we were in conversation that time also. Our heartbeats were absolutely aligned. I would often say – “hey princess I am your father here…” and her legs or hands would raise and I would give her ‘high-five’. Beautiful moments, some of which, we could capture in pictures as well.
Now since I was standing close to her bed, she raised her hand as if trying to hold mine. She was looking at me and smiling – as if telling me – “Go on father you have been very talkative throughout.” I smiled; my daughter was quite understanding – so the conversation began.
“So, you have finally arrived. You know how much your father waited for you. I hope you were fit and fine and your mother was taking good care of you.” And she smiled and I felt as if she said – “Yes. Look I am finally here”.
You must be wondering as how am I conversing with her when she can’t even speak? I told you; fathers have a language of hearts with their daughters. And daughters speak even when they are silent. Rather, they are speaking louder when they are silent. Here, she was at least moving her lips and saying few words – and I was happy.
So, I continued, “I will give you the best of education and best of things in life. I will give you everything that you would ask for to become a strong individual and good human being. I am sure you will have a beautiful life and you would do very well. The time will fly and we both have to hold each other’s hands to make each other happy and confident. You remain assured that no matter what, your father would always stand by you and would remain with you. You would need me at many occasions. You would need me to drop you to the play-school for the first time and then formal school. You would need me in your parents-teacher’s meetings. You would need me standing and cheering you up during your every achievement, and you would need me when the days may not look that good. You would need me when you would be struggling and finding your own ways to succeed. Rest assured, whenever you would need me, you would find me with you always.”
She looked at me with strange eyes as if telling me – “I am just few days old dad and you want me to go to school and attend parents-teacher’s meeting. Common dad, spare me for few years. I have just come out of a tough nine months life. And you know your wife more than me – after all, she is also a Leo.”
I smiled and decided to continue then suddenly it stuck my mind – Only I was speaking about how much she would need me, didn’t speak about how much would I need her.
I could see that she was trying to reach out to my fingers again and trying to hold them. Within seconds, my fingers were in hand and her beautiful small hand was between my fingers.
Though she could not speak clearly, but whatever I could read from her eyes, she said – “Dad, I will stand by you in all your decisions and make you proud. I will ensure that me and you have a great bonding and this bonding remains forever. We will have our own language of hearts. I would know you from heart and not from your mind, like you are hearing me from my heart now. When I am holding your fingers today, it means a lot to me. I would always want you to guide me, advise me, mentor me and make me a good human being. By holding your fingers, I would be safe and secure. No matter how much I grow in age or professionally, I would always need your hand to bless me.”
Silently, I kept my hand on her head.
She slept peacefully thereafter on my hand. And I also slept holding her hand.
Trust me, every word of that conversation came out to be so true.
Even today, we speak to each other in silence. We can know, what each one of us is thinking. We can know, when either of the us is annoyed or happy. And we can know, when who is going to call. While I was writing this sentence, I just received a call from her. This bonding has only grown stronger, whenever it was tested and tried.
Eight years later, in August 2004, my son was born – a Leo again. Of course, the conversation between the two male members of the family is different.