It's not a lion daddy!

A newly made friend told me that cliches are not negative, they have stood the scrutiny of time and repeated public usage to become cliches. I couldn't agree more, even though it was a totally new way of looking at cliches. One such cliche is fathers bond much better with their daughters than sons and same goes true for sons and moms. I have always observed the way fathers care about and bond with their little girls. I was at crossword this weekend, and there was a man in his early thirties, with his cute 4 yr old princess. The girl looked like an angel in her bright polka dotted frock, combined with a little hat held on her head with the help of an elastic band. The mother was nowhere to be found, no wonder the dad looked much more relaxed, at peace and much more jovial bonding with his little one. So the girl was frolicking around the shop catching the attention and cuchi-coo of all the fellow "readers", she was unfazed with whether it was philosophy section of self help, all she was looking for was her Mickey mouse sketch book. Given the disappointment I had with the books at the shop, I couldn't help but to eavesdrop on the father-daughter conversations.
"do you like this book?" asked the dad pointing at the mickey colour book, "yes, but I want that tiger" came the answer, I wasn't sure what she was talking about untill I saw the Narnia Lion on display.."it's a lion dear, not a tiger" ah, preaching papa..."it's a tiger, daddy, see"..."beta, see the hair on his neck, and there are no stripes"...."no, it's a tiger, it eats people see! daddy!" pointing at the canine tooth of the toy, she continues "but this one is a little one, it does not eat people, I'll call it smokie", aah women learn their tricks rather early in life :).
Daddy defeated, but happy went ahead to add the toy in her basket. She was more than delighted, and there seemed to be some instinct in girl children which both enhances to become maternal and enchants us men - She embraced the "tiger" like holding a baby, while nearby a boy a bit older than her took the lion by its tail and whirled it around thinking it would serve as a helicopter rotor to lift him up.
The daddy was periodically checking his blackberry but his point of focus was his girl. The same was the case with the girl, although she was having a tough time carrying both the "tiger" and the book, she kept on playing in a small "moving" circle centered at her daddy. When the daddy moved to business books, her play area was from self help to cash counter, when the daddy was at DVD section, the play area was between Hindi old cinema to cartoon DVDs. She had a perfect precision of staying within 3 feet of her daddy. Then rang the phone, daddy picked up, spoke a few words with a face not very bright, then passed on the phone to the princess, "do u wanna speak to mom", she picked up "yeah mom, i got this new tiger" that would suffice and off she was to decide whether she wanted High School Musical 1 or 2, and later she settled on both.

The entire time they were there, the daddy repeated the same sentence " do you want this?" and little lady kept on nodding in yes or no. A similar instinct happens with our girlfriends, we keep asking and they only nod in a yes. There is a remarkable similarity here, most of us long for a girlfriend who is cute rather than hot, and when it comes to a daughter no matter what she is always cute, and every moment of bonding with her goes like a first date - it's all about her. I have never seen dads declining any request of daughters unless it is extremely unreasonable. When the daughter arrives it feels like being young again and the instinct to care and put her first before anything is enhanced much like first college girlfriend, it's just an instinct we have. That is why girls' dads are the most dreaded creatures in any guy's imagination, they just want the best for their little ones.

Finally, the dad saw me observe them, I smiled and nodded, the girl took refuge behind his legs peeping out to see me. I refrain from coochi-cooing children, because I feel they despise it. So I made some faces, she seemed to like it not because the faces were funny, but because she was grown up enough to realise "what is wrong with this guy? do u really think u r funny, grow up dude". Some small talk with her dad and off I went, only to wish that my first child should be a girl.

PS: Not to say mothers care less about their little ones, afterall they are their daughters' best friends.