I had promised him I would do it after the weekend . The brand new bike that I had got for him online had arrived on wednesday , much ahead of the due date , and my only job was to assemble it for him . Having assembled bikes of different makes and sizes before , something that I enjoyed doing , I knew it wasn’t going to be a difficult task , but I still had to squeeze some time out for it . ‘Not this week , Oh God , why couldn’t these guys have delivered it after sunday , after I was done with my night duties ’ I thought to myself . And I told Sam not to ask me even once , before I was done with my night shifts , to fix it up for him . Looking disappointedly at the neatly – packed but as yet unopened cardboard box as I stowed it away in the garage , he was doing his best to control his tears . “Papa , atleast on ..” ‘ Didn’t I and Mamma tell you that you need to always obey your parents , and listen to your grown-ups ? Then why do you” .. Starting to tear-up , he says “ Papa , on Mond… “ “ Quiet Sam , don’t make me give you a lecture on how you need to behave ,and stop whining , you don’t wanna be punished , do you ” I angrily yelled .
After a brief pause , still struggling with his tears “ Papa , atleast on Monday can you do it please . I wanna ride it to the park with my friends , please “ “ Yeah ok . I’ll be off for a couple of days after that , and it should not take me more than half an hour to fix it up for you . But remember , you are not gonna ask me , and I am not gonna open it until Monday . So do we have a deal “ I couldn’t believe he took my word for it , though given a choice I would have gladly postponed it to another day . He was not very happy , but the crying stopped almost immediately .
The nights at the hospital were busy , brutal at times , if I’m allowed to use the term . By the next morning , after handing over to the dayteam , I would get back home in time for brunch , munch something or the other and collapse in bed , before reporting back to work for the night . My sleep cycle was going for a toss . Thankfully the wife was able to handle the kids and their school the whole week . I was getting irritable each passing night . And Sunday was the worst . Too many sick patients to handle , and AD my junior at work , usually extremely reliable , had messed up labelling a couple of blood samples , as a result of which the reports took longer than usual to come back , and we weren’t in a position to handover the full details by the time we left . I could see the dayteam wasn’t very pleased , but there wasn’t much I could do about it . As we were leaving , AD who’s usually very calm and composed and not the type to make excuses , was trying his best to explain what went wrong with the samples but I was in no mood to listen . ‘ AD , stop being so petulant . You messed up , just accept it , period .’ One look at him and I knew he was hurt , but being a few good years junior to me , I realized he decided to keep quiet . ‘ I hope we never have to work together in the same shift again ‘ I said and left in a huff .
Driving back home , I was still quite upset , honked unnecessarily on the way , and slept without even munching anything . The week had taken its toll on me , and AD had only made matters worse with the previous nights goof-up . Maybe I should not have been so harsh on him , but he deserved it . ‘‘ Come on papa , you promised . Wake up . I need to ride it to the park , my friends will be waiting ‘‘ It was Monday evening , and Sam, back from school , was looking restless , whilst I had completely forgotten about his bike . ‘’ Can I just sleep for a little longer Sam , please leave me alone” ‘‘ No papa , you promised , we made a deal , don’t you remember’‘ . Yes I remember the deal , and the deal needs to be honoured . Though fuming inside , I reluctantly managed to get myself up , and noticed his glowing eyes , full of expectation . Still seething in anger with what had happened at work , I had a go at him too – ‘’ Sam , can you stop being such a pest . You’re going on irritating me when I’m dead tired , do you even realise you’re so annoying ‘‘ Maybe it was the excitement of getting a new bike , or maybe he genuinely didn’t hear me calling him annoying and a pest , he ran excitedly towards the garage .
I went behind him slowly , picked up the box , went out into the porch , and as I unwrapped it , saw the joy in his little eyes . He had already fetched the multipurpose tool box as I opened the package , and as each part was being assembled , I could see he was getting more and more thrilled . The handlebars, rear and front wheels , brakes, cranks – everything was fixed one by one , and I was sub-consciously patting myself on the back for being able to do it comfortably even while half-asleep . Only the stand , and the pedals had yet to be put on . ‘Papa , can you fix the stand later please . Once you fix the pedals , I can go out’ His excitement was palpable . Though groggy , and still angry with the morning’s proceedings , I could see that I was still able to make my ‘ pest ’ happy . I strangely struggled with fixing the pedals , which had never been the case earlier . But told him to take it out for a spin just outside the house , report to me and only after that cycle to the park .
I re-assembled the tool-box and as I was putting it back in its place on the shelf , Sam came back , teary-eyed , with one pedal in his hand . And then it suddenly dawned on me – the pedals are side-specific , the threaded part on the pedal needs to match that on the crank , but as I was struggling with putting them on , I hammered them in a bit , both into the wrong cranks – and no wonder the pedal had fallen off . I was broken . Sheepishly , I immediately put the blame on the ‘ wrongly-packaged ‘ pedals , and told Sam I would take it to the showroom and get it fixed the very next day . He was dejected no doubt , I was worried he would bring the roof down . Much to my surprise , he didn’t throw a tantrum at all . I knew I had goofed-up big time , I knew I was blatantly lying , but I just didn’t have the courage to tell him it was all my fault . He quietly went to his room ‘ Papa , will you please change the pedals tomorrow , without fail please‘ No crying or whining . Strange , I thought .
A little later , when the doorbell rang , I knew it would be his friends wanting to check out his new bike , and I would do anything not to hear what Sam had to tell them . I walked towards the door , planning to tell them that he couldn’t join them as he wasn’t feeling well . But he ran and got to the door before me , excitedly showed them the bike , including the pedal which had fallen off ‘ You know , my dad fixed it up in no time . It was so cool watching him do it . The back wheel , the front wheel , the seat , the brakes .. everything . Only the pedals have been packed wrongly , but nothing to worry , the pedals will be fully ready by tomorrow , and so will the stand ‘
I couldn’t believe my ears !! I not only messed up horribly , I even made my son lie to his friends , without him even realizing it . Just then my phone beeped , I could see there was a long text from AD , but I was in no mood to go through it . I didn’t want to have anything to do with him , atleast not for the next few days . “AD, this is all your fault . Had you done your job well , I would not have muddled up the pedal . “
I managed to sort out the crank and the pedals the next day , Sam was overjoyed he could go out with his friends . As I reclined on the sofa with a satisfactory grin after they left to the park together , I remembered I had given AD’s text a miss – it turns out the porter had carried the samples to the wrong lab , the short – staffed lab personnel , as a colleague had called in sick for the night at the last minute , had realized it only after a while and had to redirect the samples to the correct destination , and that was why there was a delay in getting the results that night . AD wasn’t at fault at all . He had tried to explain , but I was in no mood to listen . And he concluded by saying he realized it was the busy week that got to me , but would still love to continue working with me .
For the second time in two days , I realized how immature and inconsiderate I was . My ego didn’t allow me to listen to AD’s version though I know I should have , or to accept my clumsy handling of the pedal . I wrongly blamed a colleague , branded him petulant , inconsiderately called my son annoying and a pest , made him a liar , couldn’t keep a promise I had made , and to make matters worse didn’t put my hands up when I should have .
The same night I apologised to AD for my irresponsible tirade . And I also explained to Sam why the pedal had fallen off . He didn’t seem bothered at all , but I knew I had to own up to my mistake . Thanks to a considerate forbearing junior , and a kid’s patience , trust , and understanding , all of which I woefully lacked , I quickly realized, if anybody , it was me , the stubborn , bull-headed , pedal-breaking dad who fully deserved to be punished . I’m sincerely glad I fumbled with the pedals that monday , for I learnt to accept my blunder , and realised how blessed I was to be the dad of a ‘ pest ‘, a ‘grown-up’ and ‘ annoying’ 7-year old ‘teacher’ who showed me the correct way to behave .