| Even though my son has been asking for blinds for reasons of privacy, to screen the glass doors that open into his room, he has had little reason to suspect parental interference in his personal space. Till recently, that is. Perturbed that he was not studying enough for his exams during the night, even though he promised to, my wife posted me outside his room to keep vigil and ensure he did not waste away his hours surfing the net or chatting on the phone. |
| It was his mobile that roused me from my slumber at some time past midnight as I dozed hidden outside my son's door. "Let him speak for a while before you catch him red-handed," my wife had cautioned me, "so he can't cry off saying it's a wrong number" "" a diktat I followed through to nab him in mid-conversation. But he was quicker at cutting the connection as soon as he spotted me. "Just Mohit checking which chapter I was doing," he offered by way of clarification before I could ask him anything. |
| "Tut-tut," I humoured him, "I could hear a girl on the other side..." |
| "A girl!" my son exploded, "Why would I talk to a girl so late at night? Besides," he said, "you shouldn't be policing me like this, especially when you know I don't have a girlfriend, at least not any more." "Seriously," I said trying to be reasonable, "I know you were talking to a girl, which is all right, but this late, you should be studying and not romancing." |
| "But really," my son protested, "I wasn't speaking to a girl, and I really don't have a girlfriend any longer." "Why" I said concerned, "have they all broken off with you?" "Papa," said my son with what seemed like exaggerated patience, "girlfriends are like water under the bridge "" here now, gone the next moment." |
| I thought it greatly cynical for someone his age, and said so, only to be informed by my son that these were things I wouldn't understand at my age, and that I should go to bed and get some rest or I wouldn't be able to work the next morning. Thinking it best to talk to him some time later, I followed his advise, and was soon asleep. |
| The following morning I refrained from telling my wife about my son's escapade for fear that she might then scold him, as a result of which he would not be in the mood to study, and so things were back to normal. |
| Or almost normal, but for the fact that my son said a friend of his would be spending the night at our place so the two of them could finish their Business Studies course together. |
| The friend, as we discovered later that evening, was definitely a girl, and had in fact been my son's girlfriend, though it had been a few months since she had come around or called. The only difference in the months that had elapsed since we had last seen her was a pierced lower lip that looked extremely painful but which she assured us was entirely painless. |
| "Er, I thought you didn't have a girlfriend any more," I took my son aside for a whispered conversation, "so who is this?" "An ex-girlfriend," he was blase about it. "But what about girls being like water under the bridge?" I reminded him of our previous night's conversation. |
| "Right," he said, "but some are like rocks in the water, they don't go away." "Meaning?" I asked. |
| "Just that they are the true friends who stay with you, not girlfriends or boyfriends "" just," he floundered for the right words, "friends." |
Disclaimer: These are personal views of the writer. They do not necessarily reflect the opinion of www.business-standard.com or the Business Standard newspaper
