This first picture says it all.
What you are doing for Jaanu in this pic is what you do for all around you. Smile. Laugh. Support. Lift up. And perhaps most inconspicuously…fall to the background.
You’ve raised an amazing daughter who u am lucky enough to call a wife. You have taught her to expect the best and that she deserves to be treated like royalty. All by example. We love you, Dad. Happy 70th. #iamgrateful and #iamthankful for the bar you have set.
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Lots to brew, stew, and chew on these days. Find gratitude. What do I know? Who cares? But…trust some neuroscientists. #iamgrateful and #iamthankful for evidence of what works.
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Enough said. I love you. #iamgrateful and #iamthankful to have a protector like you in front of me at all times Anu Kiran And I know Priya KC Bhatt feels the same way. 
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This past Saturday, after a fine lunch, the kids and I made our way back to the car. I placed them in their car seats enough to hold them while I went back to load the stroller in the trunk. As I was a-stroller-folding, I heard Jaanu crack up. Then again. So I peeked through the trunk and into the backseat to see…this. This will be my favorite picture forever. Hard to see it topped. I love it because it’s emblematic of a sibling relationship. At the very core, the hands. This reminds me of my sis and me, Anu Kiran. Those hands might as well be ours. And though as we have aged and grown, we’ve experienced different facial expressions and body language. Sometimes smiling like this, sometimes angry, sometimes sad, sometimes tired and sleeping, and often times with one feeling one way and the other another way. Sometimes we are facing in, sometimes up, sometimes away. But you know what never changes? Our hands. I always have yours in mine and you always have mine in yours.
#iamgrateful and #iamthankful that you are my sis. And that you are always there to reach for my hand and have been since the day I was born. I hope Anaiya is to Jaan what you have been to me. If so, he will have no greater blessing. I wanted to be the first to say HBD. May it be momentum to make this year and all that follow, wonderful. Love you, Tito!
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For most of my life you’ve been the most supportive, the most influential, the most reliable, the most active, the most concerned, the most comforting, the .. most there. Whether it’s when you saw that we needed to assimilate, so you became a Cub Scout Den Mother. Or you saw that I desperately wanted Lottos with the map of Philadelphia on them so this overweight and unpopular kid could have a few moments of middle school celebrity. Or when you convinced my teachers that if my grades wouldn’t get me into honors classes my potential should (8th grade English.) Or when you knew I needed an ATM card, so you got your own account, and gave me your own card, because those were the uphill battles we fought.
Or when I got an internship that didn’t pay, but was worth it, and so you gave up your car to me for a summer. Or when you used your TJ Maxx money to buy me a Karmaan Ghia because I loved that car more than I have loved any material thing before (and now, to this day). Or when you changed your way of thinking about the things I like to do (give, cook) and shifted your prayers in such a unique and special way to make sure those things were always possible for me. Or when you made Priya KC Bhatt feel so d*mned welcome that she can brag about her relationship with her mother-in-law (you’re tied for first place on that one with a woman Satinder Chadha who you’ve formed such a special bond with, the kind of bond you don’t hear about between in-laws). Or when you became one of the favorite people in the world to Anaiya.
Or when … there’s still so much more you’ll do for me — for all of us — from now until the day I die. Because of all you’ve already done, all you’ve taught us ( Anu KiranPriya KC Bhatt ) about how to carry ourselves and be (and mom, I try, I really do try.)
On this day, your HBD, #iamgrateful and #iamthankful for being your son. Tita and Priya are grateful to be your daughters. Anaiya and Jaan are grateful to be your grandchildren. There’s no greater forcefield in the world, real or fictional, than your maternal love. See you Saturday!
Note: I know you’ll get why I led with “the most of my life” reference. Because of all you’ve taught me about the importance of my time and commitment to my own new family. You’ve never been less than the most, but because of how open and amazing you are, you’ve made room at the top for some other mosts as well.
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With Mom on a much deserved getaway, I leaned heavy on my sis, mom and dad. Lord knows my competence with our kids requires much much support to be viable. This dad needs training wheels. Any way, it was awesome.
The kids fell madly in love and it was all reciprocated. Special moments abound, for which #iamgrateful and #iamthankful From chocolate ice cream for dinner with Dadaji (him spending all his time holding her bowl so it didn’t fall, and her reminding him to eat his stuff), to dinner on the couch with Tito Foi, to fruit for breakfast, to Jaanu teasing Dadaji and Dadiji. Life is good.
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The family you choose. Sometimes unwittingly, the family that chooses you in spite of your willingness to acknowledge them as family. What a moving story. Sure the father/daughter parts tug at me, but the friendship aspects are even more…puissant (merci, France.) When I read stories like this I always think back to some of the stories that move my dad to tears. Indian workers with such integrity that they’d forego a day’s meals for their families…and often do. I wonder how much of it is religious, cultural, the inability to separate the two. I think in the end it’s proximal. I read a story like this and it gives context to the piece that’s been circulating about how in America, the richest give 1.3% of their income to charity and the poorest give some 3%+. Proximity. So let’s read this, and be moved.
#iamgrateful and #iamthankful for all those people who act when the “experience of need” fits within your “locus of control.” That’s when magic happens. Thanks to my bro Raman Singh who liked this page and brought it to my attention as a result.
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This picture hides 1,000 words. And tears. Looking at it doesn’t do it an ounce of justice. After a great dinner for Jaan’s 11 month birthday (one he cried and slept through, kind of like what I do more and more with each passing year), the grandparents, my sis, and Priya and I gathered at home for chai before getting to bed. At some point the Mom’s got to talking about each other and there was not a dry eye in the room. So much love, appreciation and respect for each other. So much gratitude for how much love the other has for their acquired children. How natural our family ties are. So let’s do this. Of all the area I find myself to be blessed, it’s fair to say the way our parents get along…actually our families…is amazing.
And #iamthankful and #iamgrateful for the air cover I was born with and the air cover I’ve newly acquired. Ain’t no kinda aashirvaad like that powered by your Momma. We got it 2x. But even better, is how much they’ve got it for each other.
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Suneet Bhatt 