11-yr-old tames alcoholic father in ‘silent’ battle

Eleven-year-old kids are expected to learn lessons not teach them. But then Nadhiya is more grown up than most grown ups are. The little girl taught her alcoholic father the lesson of his life by using the most unlikeliest of weapons: silence.

“I had no option but to stop speaking to my father,” says Nadhiya, a 7th standard student in a government high school near Tiruthuraipoondi in Tiruvarur district. “I was upset with him because he used to pick up a quarrel with my mother every day. The reason was his alcohol addiction.”

For six months, the little girl kept at the silent war, which stumped her father.

Numerous efforts by Sivakumar, who is in his 30s, to patch up with his daughter failed. Finally, after six months, the father cracked in the battle of wills: Sivakumar decided to give up on alcohol to talk to his little one.

But Nadhiya wasn’t done punishing her father. Environmentally conscious, Nadhiya, like a seasoned diplomat, set a precondition for patching up: clean the pond that was close to her school.

Sivakumar, who was desperate to talk to his young daughter, agreed to comply with the condition.

Sivakumar fulfilled Nadhiya’s wish by cleaning the pond on September 22 when the world celebrated Daughter’s Day.

The pond was in a terrible condition, and due to continuous rains a foul smell was emanating from it, inconveniencing students of the school.

On Sunday, Sivakumar, with help from his wife, removed the weeds and cleaned the pond completely.

With the alcohol-fuelled quarrels and the stink emanating from the pond history, daughter and father are on talking terms now. Needless to say, Sivakumar is a very relieved man.

“I was waiting for a chance to talk to my daughter,” says Sivakumar.
“And when she said she would be normal with me if I cleaned the pond, I did it willingly. Now we are all happy that my daughter talks as usual.”

As for Nadhiya, she is quite proud of her achievement. “My decision not to talk to him has paid rich dividends,” she says.