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The Walking Tooth-brush

I lost my father four months ago. I was emotionally very close to him. He was a very calm parent. He rarely shouted at me. He always had solutions to my problems and answers to my queries. He always told me that no question is silly and it's okay to speak up my mind. There has not been a single day after his demise when I have not thought about him. I am a single child  but I never felt alone while growing up because I always had papa to play with me. I have a lot of wonderful memories with him and the event cited below is one of my favorite. 

I must have been 4-5 years old. We used to live in a nuclear set up. It was just me and my mumma-papa. My papa used to walk me to school and back to home, every day. On our way back, I used to walk-dance and he used to buy me an ice cream. We had a black and white videocon TV at home and I loved watching it after coming back from school. One day, I saw an advertisement of a pepsodent's brush which had feet attached to it. The adverisement showed the brush playing hide and seek with a little girl while walking in her house. I loved this walking tooth-brush and asked my papa to get me one.

Next day, while returning from school, papa bought me a walking tooth-brush. I was elated and ready to play hide and seek with it. Days passed but the tooth brush did not walk. I always found it standing right there in the bathroom on its feet. It was sad. I had got the wrong tooth-brush. My papa sensed that something was wrong. On asking, I told him what was in my mind and how we got home the wrong tooth-brush. Papa patiently listened to me and said, "I will go and get it fixed from the shop". 

Next day was Sunday and I remember my papa waking me up early in the morning. He said, "wake up or else your tooth-brush will run away. I just found it walking in the varanda. " I got up and ran towards the varanda only to find my tooth-brush standing in the middle. I quickly grabbed it and placed it in the bathroom where it belonged. But the walking and sneaking did not end there. Every morning, I started finding the tooth-brush at various places in the house: next to my bed, in the garden, in the kitchen, behind the curtain, at the window, below my study table etc. Now, I started to worry that one day the brush might run off. I then approached my papa and told him about this huge problem.

Like always, he had the solution. That night before sleeping, he took me to the bathroom and after brushing my teeth, he removed my walking tooth-brush's feet. "See, now it can't run away. Go and have a good night sleep", he said. Woah! The tooth brush was at the right place every morning since then. Papa's plan worked. I was so impressed by him. He was a super hero with awesome presence of mind. 

I will succeed in parenting if I become even 50 percent of the kind of parent he was. Love him so much and miss him everyday. He is and will be my super hero forever.

About the picture below: The tooth-brush looked something like this with bigger feet. I could not find the exact image on internet.



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