Father & Son

Parental love for their sons and daughters is universal. Thanks to technology the images of the testimony to the human bond are wide spread. In Gurbani — Sikh scriptures — the word putt (son) appears nine times and its synonym sutt 82 times.

In the religion not only this but all human relationships are deemed as shackles bandhan and that only true relation is with the ParBrahm (or the Absolute). Nanak says: ‘One is entangled in worldly relations with son, daughter and wife’. His own sons were skeptical of their father’s philosophy in general. In one of my poems I imagine Gobind Singh, the Tenth Sikh guru, giving his sons a cuddle. (All his sons were martyred fighting and in captivity.)

In our secular literature one can find poems on father-daughter but poetry on father-son bond is rare. Same is the case with visual arts old and new. These three images are special. Language is inadequate to express the human bond that is above gender. Actor writer Balraj Sahni is seen with his son Parikshat when he was studying in Moscow in the 1960s. The other picture shows France’s swimming gold medal winner in the 1952 Olympics Jean Boiteaux helping his ecstatic father out of the pool after he jumped in to celebrate. The third image was taken in Gaza Palestine in 2000. Here the father Jamal al-Durrah is seen shielding his son Muhammad from the rain of bullets fired by the occupying Israeli army. Both were hit. The son died instantaneously