Father

Growing Up

As Meera grew up, she often asked about her father. “Where is Papa?” she would ask innocently, her sea-green eyes—so much like Anand’s—shining with curiosity. Priya would smile gently and tell her, “Papa is abroad, doing important work. He loves you very much and thinks about you every day.”

Meera accepted these explanations without question. She was too young to understand the complexities of life, and Priya’s stories were enough to satisfy her curiosity. But as Meera grew older, the questions became more difficult to answer. She noticed that while her friends had fathers who came home at night, hers never did. She began to wonder why they never received letters or phone calls from him.

Priya always managed to find a way to deflect Meera’s questions, but the seeds of doubt were planted. Meera started to notice the sadness in her mother’s eyes, the way she would sometimes stare off into the distance, lost in thought. But whenever Meera asked about it, Priya would quickly change the subject or distract her with something else.

Despite these lingering questions, Meera’s childhood was a happy one. She loved her mother deeply and felt secure in their little world. But the older she got, the more she wondered about the father she had never known.