The Toy Story
Today is my Son’s 1st birthday. It feels great. It has been a tough ride but having him in life has added a lot of fun and happiness. Just because I am a father now, at times I try to act mature. Although I do get caught or laughed at when suddenly I do some foolish acrobatic stunt just to make my son laugh.
Being an Actor was tough during the pandemic. Although, I have been consistently performing in front of my son for the past 6 months with a lot of laughs, claps and at times yawns. I was blank for the 1st month or so. How do I feed my family was a major question?(As was with the rest of India I think) My father who works as a tailor had also lost his business in the pandemic. It was tough.
I started to work as a freelancer for a friend of mine who wanted to update content on his website. That helped in getting a reference for one more work and after one month and a half I started getting some funds to survive.
Just before all this happened, I was vigorously working towards starting a project that I had created with a friend of mine and it was supposed to go on floor in March-April but everything got postponed for better. I got to spend a lot of time with my son, wife, mom and dad during this time. Watching Shiv slowly grow into a man is an experience in itself.
I recall my times as a kid and when I used to force my dad to buy toys for me. I have 5 sisters, so we were 6 + Mom & Grandpa … So he had to feed 9 people working as a tailor. I can’t imagine it but it must have been very tough in those days. Also, we were living in a slum so that made matters worse for him. He wanted to make sure that we all got better exposure to the world and better education but somehow due to his financial constraints he was struggling with it. I remember my father teaching me English but he didn’t know it. He wanted me to be fluent and well versed in that language. I am still trying my best at it.
Today I brought home a small car for Shiv as a gift for his birthday. I recall there was one occasion where I wanted a toy but my father was not able to afford it. He must have tried everything to get that toy for me. He made friends with people who had a toy like that for their kids. I remember my father and I used to wait for that kid to get bored with his toy so that I could get a chance to play with it. I remember my father’s eyes, he was trying to work it out, he was giving it all, he was trying to make it happen for me. When my friend bought cycles, he used to befriend a cycle store owner and rent the cycle from there. It cost 1Re./hour or so, he used to take me there. I can still feel the smell of the air when I rode that cycle for that hour. It was freedom, it was happiness, that moment was everything. This also was my father’s happiest hour. I remember his eyes, there was nothing that made him happier. Watching me play perhaps made him forget the challenges he faced in his life.
After an hour, my father use to give a funny reason to me “चल आता मोठ्या सायकल बरोबर खेळायचं … (Let’s play with something else now, let’s ride on the bigger cycle(his cycle))” … I used to cry, cry and cry. It was difficult for him to separate me and the cycle but the hour was over and he had to return it. It became a biweekly affair which I used to look forward to. He wasn’t able to buy that for me due to his financial constraints.
Today, when I entered the toy store and saw this small car somehow all those memories came back. My father was with me. He seemed happy and excited. When we came to the billing counter to pay, I took out my wallet, and my father stopped me. I could see the same eagerness and happiness in his eyes when we both used to wait for his friend’s kid to get bored with his toy. He said “मी भरतो, आहेत आता माझ्याकडे थोडे पैसे! (Let me pay for this toy, I can afford it now!)”.