18 Oct A Responsible Boy

I have always looked upto my father. He is my superhero and I want to be like him everyday. All my actions, decisions and behaviors are, in some way or the other, similar to his. My family members call me Chota Santosh (Santosh is my Papa’s name). Although I always looked upto him, my behavior was not always like his. The Covid-19 lockdown period has played a very vital role in shaping me and my personality. If you saw the Swayam of 2 years back, you wouldn’t believe it was the same person. 

Earlier, I was very immature and irresponsible. I would never think how my actions would affect the people around me. For example, if I went out with my friends, many a times I would lose track of time and come home very late, but now I have become particular about timings. Although I have the freedom now, I love to be home before 7 in the evening. I get to spend time with my parents, watch movies, have small dinner conversations, and share how my day went. I have started looking at many factors simultaneously. I have grown a lot over the last 2 years.

What happened that transformed me?

This one incident that affected me a lot. Last year in April, my Father’s entire office tested positive for COVID-19. Fearing that Dad might also be positive too, we first tried home-isolation. However, the real nightmare started when the test result came back positive!

On testing the entire family, my Aunt tested positive too. Fortunately enough, her symptoms were mild and she was recovering quickly but Dad’s condition was deteriorating day by day. His cough kept getting worse. Seeing him unwell affected me badly, it was like seeing your favorite superhero being defeated by the villain and there is nothing that you could do. 

Within a few days, Mom started showing symptoms and she tested positive too! I was scared and lost. I just couldn’t understand what was happening. Soon after, we decided to change our doctors and the new medicines started showing results. My dad got better over a week and everything began going back to normal. What was supposed to be a 14-day quarantine turned into 28 days long.

I have learnt to always be confident and sure of my thoughts and decisions because of my father. He made me “self-dependent” as he would say it. 

He encouraged me to make my own decisions, and even when a decision went wrong, he taught me to own my mistakes, learn from them and move on. If I ever went to him with a problem, like if I had a fight with a friends and had to deal with their parents now he would say “Teko Jo Karna Hai kar tere Jhagde Ghar tak nai aane chahiye” so I had to talk to the parents and deal with my own problems.

When all this happened I was scared a lot but at the same time, it taught me a lot. My dad would always say “AGAR KAL KO MEIN NAI RAHUNGA TOH KYA KAREGA TAB TOH TEKO HI KARNA PADEGA NA” and I would get very angry and 

upset. Now I understand what he meant by that.

Sometimes incidents influence the trajectory of the way you think and the way you behave. 2 years ago Swayam wouldn’t mind wasting his time, losing focus, and getting distracted by small things and he wouldn’t have imagined writing something like this and posting it online. But after this incident I realized how my father has always been a strong support pillar for me, be it my social life or my career decisions, now I want to become his strength and I want to make him proud.

Swayam Ustoorikar

Hi I am Swayam Ustoorikar. I love reading books, food and Anime.