Father’s Womb

Hello everybody, writing a blog post after pretty long. I had been fortunate enough to find time amidst boring college lectures to try my hand at run of the mill balladry here and there to keep my creative venture “I Believe That” thriving. It’s time for a write up now, an emotional one this time. As it is titled-“Father’s Womb”, it has got something, rather everything to do with Fathers. The very next word in the title womb might just have left you dazzled. Womb is not the word you often find coupled with Fathers. But through this blog post I would attempt to do that. Womb conventionally means a part of Mother’s body where the child develops in for 9 months. Womb conventionally means that part of mother’s body which shields the developing foetus, nurtures it and develops it physically as well as mentally. To put it in a nut shell womb is something due to which child develops in entirety and is responsible for its existence. Now, what has womb got to do with fathers? I am well aware of the fact that fathers don’t have one physically and there has been no genetic invention in the recent times too to affirm that they can have one. Jokes apart though not internally, externally fathers do possess such an aura for their children that it almost serves as a womb. How? This blog post of mine will try to convince you about it and at the end of the blog post you too might end up saying YES, WE BELIEVE THAT.

Let’s get to the first point which a womb provides a child-STRENGTH. In case of mothers, a mother’s womb provides physical strength to the kid. But what about Father’s Womb? Yes Father’s womb too provides strength to the kid- it’s the mental strength, the moral strength I am talking about. When his father is around, a kid finds himself the safest creature on the planet. When his father is beside, a kid finds himself as strong and powerful as Alexander. I’ve been talking this just on the basis of memoirs I’ve had. Just a simple testimony to share here.

I’ve been a great Kite-flying buff right from my childhood, unsurprisingly I’ve inherited the Kite-flying mania from my father. There would be times even today (when I’m 19 year old) when on the Uttrayan Day (Kite Flying Day); my kites wouldn’t be performing well in the sky. Needless to cite that it would add to my disappointment and frustration on the festive day. But it has been an equivalent miraculous fact that the moment I find my father by my side, holding my thread yarn I would suddenly get such an outburst of vigour and zest in my veins that I would then feel like conquering the fathomless sky at once. Then my kites would sway in the boundless blue battlefield, defeating other kites and departing them back to the ground, conveying that it was a Kite-flying maestro’s son who had dismantled it from its thread. This was a very small example of the mystical aura that fathers have. Even in my Interschool competition, seeing my father sitting in the audience would kind of fortify me of any fear induced due the competitive atmosphere or any kind of nervousness thereby helping me perform to my optimum. It was in the presence of my father that I had delivered my first Interschool Speech and today so many people know me as an eloquent orator. Such has been the aura of my dad. I remember during my Interschools in which my father has accompanied me, whenever I was nervous, unsure with uncertainty brewing all over, the moment I would see my father in the audience, my deflated chest would puff an inch more, the eyes that would be looking down lacking courage would raise with self-belief seeing the confidence in the pupil of eyes of that one special man in the audience and the voice which previously lacked conviction would then sound “N” decibels stronger. In case of mother, the womb has the physical aspect, but in case of fathers, it’s just the presence which makes all the difference!! Such expedient is a father’s womb!

Second characteristic of the womb is connectivity. While the child is in its mother’s womb, it is connected to the mother’s body via umbilical cord. Father’s womb has been a little unfortunate in this case. A mother bears her child in her womb for 9 months and is privileged to spend the maximum time with the kid. The father’s aren’t! Although willing, fathers cannot give their time to the kid. The father’s womb requires the father to be separate from the kid. The womb requires the father to slog in the monotonous office hours for the sake of proper and happy development of the kid. On one hand where the mother takes nutritious food for the nourishment of the child, it’s the father on the other hand who goes through the painstaking hours in the office for the better future of his child.  A father bears this disjunction all in his kid’s name, in the name of his kid’s future. Togetherness with the child is as dear to the father as it is to a mother. But a father compromises this separation all in his kid’s name, all in the name of his kid’s comfort. Such benevolent is a father’s womb.

Third virtue a womb posses is tolerance. In case of mother’s womb, the womb has to withstand the pressure to bear the baby for nine months. Not only this, the excruciating pain the womb goes through at the time of a child’s delivery is beyond imagination. To sum up, what does the womb get? Nothing. It provided nutrition, shelter and shield to the kid for 9 months and all it got in return is pain. So is the father’s womb. Father’s womb from my perspective has never been fortunate enough to receive equivalent amount of reciprocation from the child. Fathers have always been accused of being workaholic or being more inclined to work and less to family regardless of understanding that the place where the father works isn’t luring or lucrative but the gains which a father sees out of the work for his family is surely more luring than anything else. Also in their youth, the kids out of their impulsiveness and the warmth in their blood hurl such sentences at their fathers which instead of caressing the womb hurt it. A very common example I would give is career prospects. Every son (including me) expresses a desire and hence claims to his father that he would have a better paying job and a better enterprise than his father has. But in his impulsiveness the kid forgets a very stark chronicle that “He is trying to surpass the scale even before scaling the scale”. But the father’s womb takes it all with a smile. For it’s in the name of his kid… Such complaisant and absolving is a father’s womb.

All said and done to harp the magnanimity of father’s womb would be less. Any verbal, literary, worldly or celestial reciprocation will be a too petite in return to his devotion, dedication and love for me. I have seen a lot of literature in different languages about mother’s womb but none on father. There is a saying in Gujarati ‘Jya na pahonche Ravi Tya pahonche kavi” (Where even the sunlight cannot reach, a poet can reach). But this is one area which the poets couldn’t approach. Father’s womb has been a subject which has been deprived of magnum opuses in literature. It’s greatness is no less. Where mother’s womb takes it physically, a father’s takes it’s mentally and morally. Through this blog post of mine I convey my sincere gratitude to all the fathers for being the silent heros and silent angels of all times. I dedicate this blog post to all fathers and especially my father. It’s not just a mother’s but it’s also a FATHER’s WOMB.

P.S. Daddy I don’t want to end this blog post with clichéd lines like “My dad is the greatest” and stuff. Because I believe there hasn’t been an adjective formed yet in the language I’m writing whose epithetical effect would bestow deserved reverence on you.

Thanks & Regards,

Anish.