MY FATHER'S DISCIPLINE WAS NEVER CONSIDERED AS ABUSE

MY FATHER'S DISCIPLINE WAS NEVER CONSIDERED AS ABUSE
Harry Bissoon 
See all my blogs at letstalkwithharrybissoon.blogspot.com 

In my early teens, when the movie serial, THE DRUMS OF FU MANCHU, with Christopher Lee, was in vogue, my father, Bissoon Ramlackhan, aka Sardar, whipped me with his decorative acacia walking stick! I can't, quite frankly, and in all honesty, remember how many thumps he gave me on my buttocks, but it was enough to send my mother scurrying to my rescue, and to send my next door neighbor to beg him to stop the swift and thudding sound of acacia wood.

I had gone to watch THE DRUMS OF FU MANCHU, showing at my neighborhood Cinema, Radio City, the premier movie theater in my village. It was the Saturday morning matinee show, for which he had given his explicit and conditional permission. I had gone to the movies that Saturday morning with my friend Tazi. We really enjoyed the non - stop action and suspense thriller. 

After the show, as we exited the cinema, we ran into friends who were there for the mid- day showing of the movie. They encouraged us to go back to watch the movie again. They said that they were paying for our tickets, and really wanted to treat us to a double whammy. We, like bleating sheep, followed them back into the movie theater. 

At the end of the show, I was apprehensive as I walked back home, even though my friends told me that they would talk to my father if there were problems.

As I approached my home, I saw my father, waiting at our gate, with his walking stick in his hand. My friends reneged on their promise, running like frightened cats, leaving me alone to face my father.

The whipping he gave me was not hard and brutal. It stung a little and made me cry. It was his way of disciplining me for disobeying his precise and clear instructions when he gave me permission to go to the morning matinee.

From that day I never disobeyed my father, and I am thankful for his guidance, and his clear demarcation of what is good and what is bad. Because of him, I am what I am today!

I STILL HAVE THAT ACACIA WALKING STICK WITH ME, POLISHED AND PRESERVED AS A REMEMBRANCE OF PARENTAL GUIDANCE AND DISCIPLINE.

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