Fayyaz , Sales Mgr Radisson , sent me an invite for a Special Father’s Day Supper event: I declined.

Tejaswini , Sales Mgr  Hyatt Regency did not : I would have gladly accepted : more to make amends for my last-hour back- out last month ( in favour of a Cricket Match ),  than to celebrate Father’s Day.

Fathers are not expected to celebrate : sons & daughters are !!

Not that I am unduly perturbed : merely concerned ( borrowed from Jaya Rao’s definitional nuances : Tamsiks are perturbed though not concerned ; Rajasik’s are both concerned and perturbed ; whereas Satviks are concerned though not perturbed ) . Why ? you might ask , correctly punctuated with a ? instead of a ! to show your bona-fide concern . The answer really is quite simple :

Circumstances over the years have ensured with monotonous regularity that I have never really had a special celebration dedicated to me : some occasional exceptions have been more as an add-on to other  more deserving occasions ( “oh btw this is also Lakshman’s Birthday” – variety ) : I call this the Nandi -Bull syndrome ( those who frequent a Shiva temple will understand what this means ) .

I do believe this has something to do with my Namkaran : contrary to the widely held belief my first name is not just a crisp Lakshman but an elongated though non-hyphenated Lakshmandas. May be my proud parents felt I was  good enough to be named after  some one in the Ramayana though not the numero uno Maryada-Purshottam : but the Pandit i/c of Nam-Karan ceremony saw in me the promise no higher than a mere Das to Lakshman ( Servant ka Servent ) . Or may be the priest in-charge was a Sikh granthee who felt I might just about make the grade of Lakshmandas , the Sevak of Bala & Mardana , the two close followers of Guru Nanak : ( Servant Kay Servant kaa Servant ) . I have never never really found out though , despite this little cobweb in mind , I have proudly held on to my full non abridged uncorrupted name assigned at birth . For a while I did contemplate a  pen-name, Ramanuj ( those with a working knowledge of Sandhi-vichhed in Hindi grammer will understand the connection ) to shoot darts at real-life characters bearing coincidental similarity to fictional characters in my inane drivel , but chose to revert to real-identity soon enough with a resolve not to fictionalise the inanities of Real Life characters : darts or no darts !!

Cheers GN & SD