Sunday, June 12, 2005

Daddy's Little Girl

My dad's kinda lonely seeing that my mom's traipsing all over the Pacific Northwest with my in laws. So, in the spirit of being good children, my bro and I took my dad out to lunch today. Indian fish head curry to be exact. Sometime back, I had fish head curry with a side serving of cabbage in tumeric (it's a lot yummier than it sounds) and I've been wanting it since. Unfortunately, every other fish head curry place, even though it disguises itself as some Banana Leaf place or other, doesn't have the same dish. Today, we ventured out of Little India and still, no cabbage in tumeric. Only spinach and bittergourd. *Makes face at bittergourd*

There were the four of us and my dad insisted on ordering the large fish head and I assure you, it was huge. Of course, this was done without the knowledge that my eccentricity actually had some sort of precedence. My bro was all keen about the curry, just not so much about the fish itself. Apparently because fish have smell and bones and you only eat it because it tastes good with the curry, so you might as well just eat the curry, minus the smelly, bone-filled fish. That left Dan, my dad and I to finish the fish head the size of a slightly deflated soccer ball.

Most of the fish, from the far reaching corners of the fish's skull ended up on my banana leaf. My dad figured Dan could take care of himself and indulged in watching me struggle through all he plonked on my plate. I made a comment about it afterwards to Dan about it as I staggered back to the car totally OD'ed on fish and briyani and Dan's response was that it was a dad's job to spoil his daughter and since I am a daughter, I deserve being spoilt.

It feels weird because it's been a long time since he's indulged me this way. He's given me sour prunes (because both my other bro and I share his affinity for preserved sour plum/prune like things- writing this is making my jaw tingle), large oranges (because he knows Dan and I can't stand those small Valencia ones masquerading as oranges), mangoes (because he knows I love the clothes but cannot for the life of me figure out my size? ..haha, no.). But he's never fussed over me during a meal like that before. It's a first.

I kinda miss that feeling, of being indulged in. Dan does his fair share, I must admit. And I'm a pretty high maintanence girl (his words, not mine). But it's different when Dad does it. It takes you back to the time when you stared in wide eyed wonder at your dad and he could do no wrong. When he was all knowing, all protecting, all perfect and not at all unreasonable. It takes you back to a time before you became a teenager and before the rose-tinted glasses came off.

Now that they have, they can't go back on, but for a little while today, it felt like they did and it was a nice feeling. It was nice to feel safe, sitting beside my Dad, forgetting I'm an adult and actually old enough to have my own family. It felt warm and fuzzy being Daddy's little girl once again.

Ondine tossed this thought in at 23:18

0 thoughts...

0 thoughts...

Post a Comment

" Far in the stillness, a cat languishes loudly"