Saturday 25 June 2016

Daughter

FF #14
“My daughter will start going to school in a few years, I am seriously considering moving back to India.”
Gourab and I were walking a bit behind the others; his daughter was asleep in the stroller. I had heard of this older fun-loving couple earlier from my Indian friends who lived in Cologne; and now a bunch of the Cologne folks were visiting Munich for the weekend. I’d been showing them around the city. Indeed, he and his wife were both fun to hang out with, and interesting to talk to.
“You see,” he continued, “The other day a senior colleague of mine was telling me that his daughter had announced that she is a lesbian. I love Germany, but I don’t think I want to bring up my daughter here.”
I wasn’t out to this bunch, but I wasn’t going to let this go without protest.
“Gourab, what if your daughter did turn out to be lesbian? Would you force her to get married and lead a painful life?”
“No, no, how could I ever see her pained?” He stopped, bent down to the stroller and brushed her hair.
“So wouldn’t this is a better place for her to be herself, if she were different?”
He walked in silence for a bit. I wondered whether I had offended him.
“Actually, you do have a good point,” he sighed, “I have to really think about it.”
They did move back to Kolkata after a few years. Their daughter would probably be in her mid-teens now, discovering and understanding her own sexuality. It has been a long time that I have completely lost touch with them, but I am pretty sure her parents will dote on her, no matter who she becomes.

25 Jun 2016

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