Dear Daughter ....

The question was inevitable. But this time you knew the answer. At least part of it. The part about him being in the black & white picture hanging in our study. Today (27/5/17) you brought it up early on, on a saturday morning while we were just having a little lie-in time. We somehow stumbled on the topic of who's Dad was where and you asked "Dad, where's your dad?" more because you were ready with your answer. Unlike other times, I took a moment to get my act together and take it forward. For this was one of those rarest of rare mornings when I had woken up fully aware that he was in my dream last night. Dear Daughter, Dreams and memories have a strange way of leaving a mark, a flavour, an aftertaste of sorts. I barely remember the dream from last night with my dad in it but I do remember he was in it. Maybe it wasn't his face, maybe not his voice (I have zero recollection of his voice) but definitely his presence that has left a definite melancholic kind of...

You aren't exactly excited about it. I have no way to tell if you are secretly dreading or looking forward to it. You say you don't want her home but your face does a lot of lighting up when you see her picture, so fingers crossed, There is hope! You were the one to pick the name- Sky- based on the Paw Patrol character that you are fond of. I wanted to name him / her (again, your choice of strengthening the female majority at home) as Pishtu on Pishti. That's partly because of our shared predilection for pistaccio. We've had sessions of cracking and crunching through bowl full of the green nuts in minutes. Also because it makes sense to have a desi (Indian) sounding name (pishta is the hindi name for pistaccio) for a pet in UK, just like it somehow made sense to have a christian name for pets in India. We've visited Sky thrice so far but you've barely met her twice. The first time might have caused the problem. We were greeted in a boisterous, clamorous, uproar...