I took a walk down my family garden to find the perfect Father?s Day present

(This post is written in partnership with Seniority)

By Sanjay Sharma 

I’m an Equity Analyst and while every day is a long day at work, yesterday was particularly jam-packed with meetings, briefings, and a lot of sitting in front of the computer. Later at night, when I finally was about to wrap up my work for the day, my phone beeped. It was a message from my brother, “What are we gifting Dad for Father’s Day?” he inquired. I let out a huge sigh, and leaned back in my chair, closing my eyes, and thinking back to when I was eight, Friday nights meant pizza, cartoons, and the eagerness for  Saturday morning gardening lessons with our Father.

Growing up, my brother and I always spent weekends helping our father in the garden. Our father worked in a financial services firm as an executive and work normally left him exhausted. During the week he didn’t have much time for us or for his favourite hobby: gardening. But weekends were special. Our mornings were filled running around the front yard, helping plant seeds, fertilising plants, pruning the hedges and bushes, and weeding out garden beds. I remember once we had planted a new batch of tulips in our yard as they were our mother ’s favourite flower. I was so eager to give her a bouquet of them, that I used to wake up every morning and dash to the yard, to see if the flowers had bloomed. One morning, after almost a month of planting them, I sat in front of the garden, staring at the ground, disappointed.

My father immediately noticing the look on my face walked towards me and asked what was going on. “I don’t know what I did wrong, but the tulips just won’t grow,” I complained. “I have been watering and tending them every day like you asked to, but they’re still not growing.”

My dad laughed and said, “Son, I am so proud of you for being committed to your tulips, but you need to understand that it takes time and patience to help plants grow.” He explained, like every good thing to happen in life, we need to have the patience to reap the rewards of our hard work. The tulips, once they bloom, would be the reward for my hard work, and I just need to be more patient.

Weeks passed and finally one morning my father woke me up to inform that there was a surprise waiting for me in the garden. I raced out to see a tiny tulip bud, and my happiness knew no bounds. I was speechless.

Looking back, at all the mornings we spent in our yard, under the bright sun, tending our garden were perhaps the happiest memories we have with our father. As, he taught us about fertilisers, soils and plants, he was in fact, teaching us lessons of life, that have proved to be invaluable. After retirement, my father decided to pursue gardening full time, he spends his mornings tending to his plants, watering, pruning and taking care of them. My mother often jokingly mentions how he treats them with more love and affection than he gives to her.

As these memories flooded my brain, I finally opened my eyes and finally propped up myself on my chair. There was a huge smile on my face, and I texted my brother, “I know just the perfect thing to get him.” A few days earlier, while trying to look for presents for Father’s day, I remembered I had stumbled upon this premium gardening tools set as a part of Seniority’s unique gifting range for Father’s Day. What better way to celebrate the unique relationship between me and my father, than through this perfect gift?

I sent the link to my brother, who was also amazed at their selection, and in fact, we also ended up buying a Marathi Saregama Carvaan for my mother who is a die-hard fan of Marathi and Hindi film songs. Since discovering Seniority’s unique collection and their free delivery services all over India, I’m sure, we will always find ourselves buying vinyl records of classics like Baton Baton Mein and my personal favourite Do Raaste as gifts for our parents. My parents live in Mumbai and I live in Delhi and often I feel guilty about not being able to help out enough with their day to day errands. However, after I introduce my parents to Seniority’s senior-friendly website where they can access all medical, lifestyle, and living aids in one place, they will be able to send us links for products they need or have been recommended by their doctor and we can buy the products and have it shipped to them free of cost.

You can check our Seniority’s entire Father’s Day collection here. And don’t forget about your mom simply because its Father’s Day, Seniority has an amazing collection of lifestyle and other products for every parent.

Sanjay Sharma is an Equity Analyst by profession and a gardener by passion.