His education has no fixed time nor a formal curriculum. His words are not artificial like a lecture; sometimes in broken words, sometimes through silent attitudes, and sometimes through his actions, he teaches us life lessons for which no school or university building is required, nor any class, curriculum, or exam.
Sometimes he teaches us a skill of life by saying two sentences at the dining table, and sometimes with a cup of tea in hand, he places the essence of his successes and failures before us. But today's youth, who often consider Google, social media, and degrees as the standard of knowledge and wisdom, ignore these precious experiences.
Carefree of responsibilities, when we siblings are under the shadow of a father's affection, our thinking generally passes through three different stages.
First Stage — Childhood
In this era, the father is our hero. Everything he says seems right to us, and every decision of his feels like the best.
But as consciousness grows, we begin to feel that perhaps he doesn't understand us and is strict without reason.
Second Stage — Vigor of Youth
Then youth comes. A degree comes into hand, we read a few books and start claiming to understand the world, then our own father appears to us as someone holding old-fashioned ideas.
We ignore his years of experience, wisdom, and insight, considering them merely an old lecture.
We feel that we understand the new world better than him, even though he has seen many such turns in life that we haven't even faced yet.
Third Stage — Facing Reality
Then comes that turn in life where neither Google search works, nor a degree, nor modern technology.
When the challenges of practical life, economic pressure, and the burden of responsibilities fall on the shoulders, one comes to their senses. Then the heart and mind are involuntarily forced to think:
If my father were at this place today, what would he do?
How did he remain so steadfast despite such big problems?
Then it is realized that perhaps he was silently training us for these very difficult exams of life, and in our lack of understanding, we kept considering his precious lessons obsolete and useless.
We often hear a father's advice, but his silent sacrifices are not seen.
He puts his desires aside to fulfill our needs, supports us in our failures, rejoices in his heart at our successes, and keeps his worries to himself so that the smiles on our faces remain.
Perhaps that is why there is a weight in his words that comes not just from age, but from experience, sacrifice, and selfless love.
The regret is that we understand the value of many of a father's words only when life brings us to the same paths he passed through years ago.
Fortunate are those youths who benefit from their father's experiences while he is still present, consider his advice an asset rather than a burden, and learn to feel his silent sacrifices.
Because after time passes, only memories remain, some incomplete questions remain, and a wish remains in the heart:
If only! We had listened to him carefully at that time...
But the father who answers every question does not stay with us forever.
Written by: Za. Sheikh