The image created by the media and adverts on tv about the relationship between a father and a son always seems a bit cliché. The tough love of a father compared to the gentle touch of a mother. I feel society has created a notion about the general mood of the male parent - tough exterior and hard please. While mother are adoring and protective, fathers are shown as the strict teacher who goes out of the way to teach by example or by outcome. It is true in most cases, and probably for the better. So much so that it is almost reflexive for most sons and fathers to have a metaphorical wall of silence between them, as if emotions are meant for infants. Somehow talking only about exams and sports with our fathers is the norm.
Said wall, however, comes down at certain points in life and it couldn’t be more obvious. For example – scoring your first century in cricket as a child or even coming runners-up in a horse-riding race. Sometimes its just scoring well on the final exam, winning a school debate, being selected in the college of your choice or getting your first job. In these moments of pride and joy we almost overlook the stark change in the behaviour of the father – more adulatory and more importantly, more approachable. I am sure I speak for most boys, at least in our country, that this amenability comes out in different forms that only the father and son notice and acknowledge.
In my case it was every time we went to the market to buy formals. When 56-year-old man with a penchant for being curt with every salesman, spends his whole day trying to make sure that every piece of formal clothing you try is the best available piece, you know that the strange gap is only imaginary and probably exaggerated. When I was asked to catwalk across the Allen Solly store with a new pair of trousers and shirt, I felt like that boy in the advert who recognized the father inside that tough exterior of a man. Aditya Birla Groups brands like Pantaloons and Van Huesen probably witness instances like these every day; instances of subtle show of affection that sons cherish for life.