Parents love - the only unconditional love

Last week, my parents celebrated their 31st wedding anniversary. Their story is a true reflection of the sacrifices parents have to go through to bring up children.

My mom is a house wife and it still amazes me how someone can do all the household chores, cook food, bring up children, never get paid or promoted all life and still be very happy. In today's world, not many people of my generation can even think about doing this for even a couple of years.My dad was a bank employee all his life until he retired a couple of years ago. The commitment and dedication to his work has always inspired me. He started his life with literally nothing and built his way up to raise such a beautiful family. My dad knows when my mom looses her cool and what needs to be done to bring her back.Together they make the best parents of the world.

In our family, my sister was always the special and the pampered one. Right from her schooling days, one of us had to drop her and pick her up from school, tutions and coaching classes. We had a tough time choosing colleges for her under graduation and post graduation. My mom used literally all her contacts to finally get her a project and job. For me it was totally different, i was always told being a guy, i should take care of myself. How else would i learn how to live in this world? I still remember, my first day of college my dad  just got enough leaves for my family to drop me in Chennai but they could not wait until the first day. So i picked up an auto from my relatives house and went to college. I was truly frustrated seeing every other student with their parent on their first day of college. However, i have no regrets today as this is what taught me great lessons for life. A couple of more incidents in my life redefined my love and respect for my parents.

The most unforgettable incident of my life is the arrival of my little friend who is a premmie. He was less than a kilo when he was born and this totally changed my life. Since my friends parent's or in laws could not make it in time we had the responsibility to support our friends during this tough phase of life. This changed my perception of life, how in a day your life can be turned upside down and things like career, money, passion everything becomes irrelevant when it comes to family. I have never prayed so hard in my life, went to all temples in Melbourne and prayed for my little friend. It took my respect for motherhood and parenthood through the roof. What a difficult phase of life it is for a mother to go through pregnancy, raise her child and sacrifice a lot of things on the way? I started loving my mom even more from that day. Still today, my little friend is very close to my heart, i pray for him everyday and he will always be my favourite. He is more special to me than my own nephew, my sister will kill me if she reads this.

Even though my grand mother passed away when i was 11 years, i still have the best memories of my childhood associated with her. One of the best memories is my grandparents Sashtiaapdapoorthi. We always wanted to celebrate my parent's Sashtiaapdapoorthi in a special way. The best thing about working in Australia is no one questions your personal/annual leave of 3-4 weeks if you inform them 2-3 months in advance. So i planned my annual leave in such a way that i have sufficient time to prepare for the function and also be with my dad on his day of retirement. The function was a awesome and a great reason to get together with family and friends.

On the day of his retirement, our family went to his office as they had a farewell party organised. It was great to see so many people praise my dad for all the hard yards he had travelled for the bank. I was asked to speak a few words which i wasn't prepared for so just spoke from my heart. I just told them for me spending a lifetime in a single job with the same dedication and commitment till the last day is a great achievement. I also told them i can't stay in a single job for more than 2 years.Then one of my father's general manager spoke, he said the reason why i can think of switching a job in a couple of years is due to the basement my dad had built spending all his life with the bank. If it was not for his sacrifice, i would have ended up in a job which i could not have quit for my life.

Hewitt teaching his son a few tricks during pre-match
 pratice in  Aus Open 2012

I used to be very proud of myself until that day as i stood on my own legs and never took and will never take a penny from dad since the day i got a job. However, this incident changed my way of thinking. It made me realise that i was able to reach for the stars because i was standing on my parents shoulders all my life, no child can repay this in any of their lifetimes. The only way you can try to repay is to bring up your children with the same unconditional love and support if not more.