Who are the people whom every individual is closest to? While relatives, friends, colleagues and acquaintances can claim proximity, it is obvious that it is one’s family members who are in almost all cases the closest. No body knows one for what one intrinsically is, warts and all, with all one’s flaws and foibles, and all one’s skeletons in the cupboard better than one’s family members.
Family members are always there and usually they would probably stand by one in good stead and they would probably not want to besmirch, blemish or tarnish another family member’s reputation. Usually, one’s happiness in life in general depends on the rapport one has with one’s family members and it goes without saying that if one shares a happy, cordial and content rapport with them, one usually possesses a happier disposition and outlook in life.
While nuclear families now rule the roost, there was a time when the joint family system was in vogue where the parents’ parents and siblings would reside giving the whole family a wise and wholesome outlook. Now, many a nuclear family chooses to keep aged parents in an old age home with no traces of incumbent sensitivity and concern. The hit movie, ‘Kabhie Khushi, Kabhie Gham’, directed by Karan Johar shows very explicitly a family with its ups and downs, his ultimate logo being, ‘It’s all about loving your parents’.
It is the parents who have brought us into this world, protected us, educated us and provided us with a wholesome environment. Both the father and mother have jointly brought up the offspring with good principles and secularism, and therefore, it follows that one should abide by their regulations and respect them. Gandhi had said the difference between the father and mother is akin to the following quotation, “When you educate a man, you educate an individual, but when you educate a woman, you educate a family.” So, while the father’s role is paramount, a mother is at home most of the time, and therefore, she would probably impart her wisdom to the offspring and family slightly more.
Those who feel that the father and mother are not wholly responsible for the family’s happiness should watch the movie ‘Parent Trap’. Here though the children have a good rapport with both father and mother, the perfect rapport is torn apart when the father chooses to get friendly with a beautiful woman whom he wants to marry after divorcing his wife. The remaining part of the movie reveals how at the end of the day, the wife and children, being his biological family rule the roost while the “other woman” is unceremoniously ousted from the family scenario. The movie’s title ‘Parent Trap’ is indeed apt and appropriate. Since family is the bedrock and basis of all human life, one writer revealed that the word ‘FAMILY’ can be an acronym which stands for the words, ‘Father And Mother, I Love You.’