Happy Father's Day

It's Father's Day weekend. At home, we don't usually celebrate it, so I totally forgot about it until I read an article on MSN.com (click here) featuring famous personalities and their thoughts on fatherhood.

Which reminded me of that one very special man in my life. Growing up with my 2 sisters, Abah has always been our hero. When I was younger, Abah was our knight in shining armour, protecting us from the very scary person called Mak (who was so very garang in my opinion, although now that I'm older I know it was for our own good, and now Mak is the person I tell everything to. And just so you know, I plan to be just like her with my children *grins*).

Anyway, back to Abah. One of my earliest childhood memories is that of me greeting Abah at the door when he came back from work, trying to open the grill door using one of my brightly-coloured plastic keys. He was posted to Sabah when I was about 4 years old, he came back to Seremban constantly to see us. And when we finally joined him there a few months later, I remembered arriving at the apartment, our rooms beautifully done, and my sisters and I each had a Donald Duck tabung greeting us on the dressing table with our names written underneath in Abah's handwriting.

Abah is always very calm and collected. I still think he's one of the bravest people I've ever known. The first time I saw him panic was when we were at the theme park in Jakarta, and he accompanied my sisters and I into a haunted house. At that time, it was VERY packed, everyone was shoulder-to-shoulder (well, we were smaller back then, it was more like our faces into people's rear ends). When everyone was pushing to go forward, in the chaos, my youngest sister got separated from us. That was the one time I saw fear in his eyes.

When he got angry (which was and still is, very, very, VERY seldom) he never laid a finger on us. The only time he threatened me with his belt was when I was in Standard 3, when 7 p.m cartoons were more interesting to me than taking my bath. Even then, he just swung the belt in his hand but it never got near me. I saw through it after the second time he tried it on me. Anyway, I DID go and take my bath after he asked me to (a 30-second one during commercials).

When I used to fall asleep watching tv, Abah would carry me to my bed. Sometimes I pretended to be asleep so he would carry me. Until the day I got quite big and so he couldn't carry me anymore. That was when I realized even if I wanted to, I couldn't be his little girl forever.

Being a father to 3 daughters must be quite a challenge. Not that we give him trouble, but a father always worries about his daughters more than he would do sons. Whenever he's worried about something, he wouldn't tell us directly, he sends his emissary (Mak). But when he does say something, you better listen, coz it's quite serious.

Abah has always been proud of his daughters. When my SPM results came out, Mak said that he was so proud that he actually carried a photocopy of my results slip wherever he went. Nevertheless, I know that Abah is proud of us, regardless. Even during the times I felt that I didn't rise up to his expectations (well, mine, actually) he'd always been there to console and encourage.

Being in the profession he is in, people always think that he's a very stern and severe kind of man. It couldn't be further than the truth. It always tickles us to see people at his workplace being so in awe of him. But then, he does have this aura around him that inspires awe in people. He's just a different person with his family. As with the nature of his job, Abah has been transferred to many places. But with the offices he's had, there's something that's always the same : individual pictures of Mak, Along, Yana and me on his planner on his writing table, which means we're the closest to him even when he's working, literally.

Abah, I just want to say 'Happy Father's Day'. I can't ask for a better father than you. And although there will come a time when another man occupies a special place in my life, you will always be my hero.