By IANS
New Delhi : They sweat it out everyday at work to give you the best of everything. They might not be very expressive but when they hold your hand to jump over the puddle or take you in their arms when you cry, you know how much they care. For the first man in your life who you truly love, Father's Day Sunday was the perfect occasion to express how much they mean to you.
Whether it was by buying their dad a CD with his favourite collection of songs or taking some time out to play a round of pool together or by simply accompanying him on his daily walk, people found their own way to make the day special for their fathers.
Aarti Mehta, for instance, cooked her dad his favourite meal and a special dessert. "Dad has instilled the eating bug in all of us," she laughed. "As kids we used to love watching dad cook. He would take care of the minutest detail and whip up a delectable meal, complete with the garnishing.
"Among all of us, which includes mom and we two sisters, dad is the best cook! Now I can't beat him in that but I tried to cook something which thankfully suited his taste buds," Mehta said.
And daddy dearest sure did love it. "I was touched. Aarti is not much of a kitchen person. So taking all the trouble to spend the whole day in that part of the house and coming up with something so nice…I am really happy," said Rakesh Mehta, her father.
Akash Gupta, who works in an advertising agency, decided to take his father out for a game of golf on Father's Day. "Dad likes to play golf and has his circle of friends who have similar interests. Unfortunately I can never join him because of my hectic schedule.
"But today being Sunday and Father's Day, I decided to go along and join him in a round of the game. He really liked that," Gupta said.
While there are those like Mehta and Gupta who celebrated Father's Day, there were others like Suhit Sharma, a student, who had no clue about this day whatsoever.
"Well, I didn't know that it was Father's Day since I have never celebrated it. But I like the gesture of making your father feel special. My dad is my best pal and I let him know that every now and then. I don't need one day to tell him that," Sharma said.
Whether one celebrates the day or not doesn't really matter as long as one believes in the feeling that goes behind it.
The concept of celebrating Father's Day was started by a woman named Sonora Smart Dodd of Spokane, Washington, back in 1909.
While listening to a sermon on Mother's Day, which is celebrated May 13, Dodd thought that she would like to honour her father William Jackson Smart, a civil war veteran, who had raised her and her five siblings single handed after their mother passed away.
Since her father's birthday falls in the month of June, Dodd decided to celebrate the first Father's Day on June 19, 1909. In 1924, President Calvin Coolidge supported the idea of a national Father's Day.
Finally in 1966, President Lyndon Johnson signed a presidential proclamation declaring the third Sunday of June as Father's Day. Then in 1972, President Richard Nixon established a permanent national observance of Father's Day to be held on the third Sunday of June.
Thereon Father's Day has become a day not only to honour one's father, but all men who act as a father figure – stepfathers, uncles and grandfathers included.