Until few years ago, dads would have their eyebrows raised, if their children wished them a happy Father’s Day. Because, in India, a dad is a breadwinner, a rule maker who is stoic and stern, and who sees providing for his children is his duty. For him, the notion of being honoured and gifted on some specific day is just a waste of money!

Nevertheless, this mind-set has changed drastically since the trend crossed over to the Indian subcontinent a few years ago, spreading like a wildfire. Fathers today love to cook, help around in household chores, babysit the children and thrive to spend quality time with family!

On this Father’s Day, GIIS Ahmedabad, hosted events on the occasion and invited dads of the pre-primary kids to participate along with the children, in various contests. The turnout was huge and we had dads and kids come on early Saturday morning to participate in contests or rather build stronger bonds between them. There was ‘Look Alike’ contest Nursery, ‘Sing Along’ for K1 and ‘Cooking Without Fire’ for K2 fathers.

‘Cooking Without Fire’ required fathers to bring pots and pans and cooking ingredients along to prepare a delicious side dish in just 25 minutes. There were over 20 dads who teamed up with their children and prepared eye-catchy items like cupcakes, soothing drinks, pizzas, sandwiches, rolls and lip smacking snacks. We could see so much excitement and bonding time as the father-child duos were utilising every minute to prepare some wonderful eatables to emerge winners! A father said that he was very happy to cook with his child as it brought out in both the pleasure of teaming up with each other and working hard to win!

For ‘Sing Along’ contest as well, many fathers admitted to have been preparing with their wards for the contest since a few days! Many toddlers came up on the dias with their daddies and gave synchronised singing performances of rhymes like ‘five little monkeys’ and Bollywood songs like ‘Oh I love you daddy’. Some showed no stage fear while performing while some got anxious just before their turn came to perform. However, with their daddies by their side, all the anxiety vanished and soon the stage shy kids gave an applause worthy performance. The same was with the ‘Look Alike’ contest where a dad-son duo came dressed up as mangoes to mark Summer time while another came dressed in traditional Muslim attire to mark the holy month of Ramzan.

The judges, who were teachers selected from the primary and pre-primary section, had a hard time deciding the winners of the day and had to actually increase the number of winners seeing the splendid performances! Principal, Caesar D’Silva, congratulated all the winners and asked fathers to continue giving time to their children to boost their morale and develop a deeper bond.

And, the fathers reciprocated with a big thank you for organising the Father’s Day event and giving them the opportunity to create the memories they will cherish for life!