Hero

“You are my Hero, Papa”, said my almost 4 year old daughter last evening. Her statement triggered various emotions and questions in my mind. Did she mean what she said? Did she know what those words meant? Where did she even pick up that phrase from? Some TV cartoon probably. Irrespective of the associated sincerity of her claim, my heart swelled with pride and a weird kind of happiness. No one ever said those words to me before. The words kept lingering around in my mind for a while, as I served dinner – bread and omelet – to both my daughters.

A little later in the evening, still occupied with that sweet thought – I decided to seek clarification from Palakh, “What did you say to me a while ago?”

“I want to have my birthday at Paint Away”, she replied.

“No, a little before that?”. She looked confused, so I added, “You said – You are my Hero, Papa. Why did you say it?”

“Because you are my Hero and you saved me.”

“Saved you? When?”

“You saved me from falling…when I was sitting in the kitchen”

Hmm.. now it was clear. She had wanted to sit on the kitchen counter when I was preparing dinner. Afterwards, I had lifted her and put her down on the floor safely. This little action seemed to have left some kind of a feeling in her mind and she decided I was her hero. And it was at least fifteen minutes later that she then thought of mentioning it to me.

I had only put her down on the floor.

She totally floored me.