A Letter to my Dad
My dad lived an amazing life that began nearly 60 years ago and ended last week. After learning of my dad’s passing, I wrote him a letter which I have shared below:

Dear Dad,

There’s so much I wish that I could say to you, but I want to start by thanking you for always having been the dad that I needed. You may not have thought much of it at the time — perhaps you were chasing adventure much the way that I chase it — but you made sacrifices for me even before the 30 years that we knew each other. Spurred by little more than your father’s direction, you left your parents, your country and all of your comforts behind to build the best life that you could build for Mom, Adi and me. You first arrived in Rolla, Missouri with few dollars to your name, some of which you used to buy a beat-up Ford Galaxie 500: a car that you later told Adi and me may have been missing a motor. Much like me — years later — you also found it difficult to acclimate to new settings, but you ultimately worked twice as hard as you needed to work to achieve your goals. After you finished getting your Master’s degree, you moved us to Atlanta — where Adi and I were born. Although we initially enjoyed few of the material comforts that you would later provide us, the small apartments in which we first lived felt so much bigger thanks to all the love you managed to fit into them. I know the first few years of my life mostly through pictures and through stories from your many friends, but our pets would be jealous of the love that you showed me. While I was small enough, it seems that I rather enjoyed jumping on your back and going for rides across the living room. It also seems that I gravitated towards you when you were wearing a certain purple shirt adorning the logo of our favorite basketball team, the LA Lakers. By the way, Dad, the player whose smile and play captivated you and helped you bridge the vast cultural divide both between India and America and between you and me… his name was Magic Johnson — not Magic Jordan or Michael Jackson :)
['Ashwin Suresh']
['Dads', 'Letters', 'Family', 'American Dream', 'Love']