Baba cried when I gifted him a bike!

“Baba was not your typical Indian dad & neither is he the bindaas kind of dad – he’s somewhere in between.
He was pretty cool though. He said ‘yes’ to all my demands and ‘okayed’ all my decisions’ – whether it was my ‘Baba, bike pe ek round maarte hai’ or ‘Baba, I want to drop out of college.’ I still remember how scared I was when I told him ‘Engineering nahi jamm raha hai.’ But when he said, ‘Theek hai. Koi aur degree kar lena,’ I was so relieved. That was the year I started my own business…

It was also the year I tried to buy a bike for him. Baba and I both like bikes, so we’d send each other reels of bikes, new launches, reviews. So when I finally started earning, maine socha, ‘Baba ke liye bike lena hai.’ But you know he beat me to it. Unhone mere liye ek vintage Bullet khareedli. I was so happy, but also dejected… we are a middle class family; buying 2 bikes in the same year was really not feasible. So I decided to wait it out.

And thankfully my business took off in the last 3 years & so this year I decided kaise bhi karke Baba ko unki bike dilaani hogi. I booked the most perfect bike for Baba in May & spent the next few months thinking about his reaction – I was ready for his ‘Why did you spend so much,’ but I wasn’t ready for how he actually reacted.
Finally on his birthday, when we told him, ‘Baba, bahar chalo, there’s a surprise for you’ he grew very suspicious. As we were climbing down the stairs, he happened to look outside from the gallery & saw a bike-like structure covered in red cloth downstairs. He understood what it was. He immediately froze & teared up on the spot.
For a moment Baba was speechless. Once we got downstairs, he lifted the red veil & saw the beast that awaited him. I still remember how happy he was when he saw it. He just hugged me. Excitedly, he 1st took Ajoba for a ride around the block & then ME! And as I rode around with him on the road, I kept remembering all those times he had driven me round on his old bike.

You know, recently when I posted his reaction reel on instagram, people reacted, saying, ‘It’s so good that you fulfilled your dad’s wish’ Kaise nahi karta mai… unhone toh meri har khwaish poori ki hai!”