09/12/2020
Ek Aagaaz Stories 151 (1/1)
“The day Gauri was born and I held her for the first time, I knew I could move mountains for her. She had the softest skin and the prettiest eyes. I never wanted to see tears in them.
She knew she was my weakness and over the years, she had become quite skilled at having things done her way. All she had to do was make a puppy dog face and I would melt.
To be honest, I didn’t mind it at all, it was the happiest I had ever been.
But when Gauri was four I found out my wife was having an affair. I was distressed. We had been married for 7 years, and had a beautiful daughter. This couldn’t be happening to me… I tried to dismiss the thought. Even decided to give the marriage a second chance, I didn’t want my daughter to be raised in a broken house. But my wife stayed put, she said she was in love and, ‘humari beti ke naseeb mein ab yehi hai!’ The latter part of her statement hurt me more. So after trying for two years, we got divorced and the judge passed his judgement in my ex wife’s favour - she got Gauri’s custody.
I was distraught to say the least, but I didn’t want to challenge the court’s decision - neither did I have the financial backing to support me nor did I want my daughter to spend her weekends attending one hearing after another; she was just 7 and deserved a better childhood than that.
So I made my peace with getting to see her every weekend. We developed a routine, every Saturday I would take her to eat burgers and then for desserts we would head over to the dessert parlour for donuts.
But dropping her off home after a blissful weekend was hard and the days that followed were harder. Sometimes she would call me at night, trying hard not to cry and say, ‘I miss you, Papa.’
She didn’t like staying over at her mother’s and everytime we met, she would plan her escape and I would just humour her.
Once, on her 8th birthday, she refused to cut the cake without me. I had sworn to never enter my ex-wife’s house but when I heard my gudiya cry on her birthday, I forgot all about it.
That day, I told everyone I was going to take her back. I was done living off my weekends with Gauri and clearly even she wasn’t as happy. I gave them a year to make their peace with it and we celebrated Gauri’s 9th birthday together, at my place!
It was mother’s day a week after and she made a card for me that read, ‘Happy Mother’s Day, Papa.’ I couldn’t hold it in anymore, that day, we both cried. But that was the only day.
We have both settled in very well, I have learnt to make her favourite Safed Paneer and now I am a champion at giving champis and making braids.
It’s just the two of us, so we do everything together, from watching movies to making stupid videos. I try to fit in all the roles - I try to tend to her like a mother, fight with her like a sibling and care for her like a father. In return, she is my best friend, she carefully listens to everything I have to say and like any other best friend, she tries to be my wingwoman - ‘Get married now, Papa. I think she can be new mamma.’”
Vinod Jadhav
I work in film industry as an Actor, Writer, Director
