Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Raising children is not an easy task for parents. But if a single father has to do to that, it becomes more difficult. For a single father, bringing up a boy is different from raising a girl. Perhaps, it is more complicated. Despite the difficult task, several men in the city have played the role of a mom after their wife passed away.
On the eve of Father’s Day, Free Press spoke to a section of people in the city who were brought up by their father single handedly.
Excerpts:
Learned how to cook for us
For me, my father Sheikh Mukhtar is my biggest asset, the most valuable gift from the Almighty to me. I was 15 or 16 when my mother died. Before that, she remained ill for over 10 years. This meant that my father, a government employee, had to run the household all alone and had to take care of me and my three siblings. He never allowed us to feel that we were motherless. He was so overburdened, managing both his office and home but he never lost cool. He didn’t remarry. He learned how to cook. He prepared lunch boxes for all of us when we went to school. After we grew up, he arranged our marriages and settled us in life.
-Zakir Mukhtar, contractor
He is my mother and father
I was around 14 and my elder brother was around 17, when my mother passed away. My father Prashant Ashtewale was a government employee. He worked for MP Rural Development Authority. He took care of us and looked after home too. My uniform was washed and ironed, all the necessary books and copies were packed in my school bag, my hair was combed properly, my lunch box was ready, he ensured all this and more. The moment I think about those days, I am overwhelmed by a flood of memories. My father is everything for me. He is my mother and father both.
- Nupur Neelesh Joshi, teacher
