Palam Vihar-May 1999-Sagar and Divya with their grandfather-Brigadier Dr.Prem Narain Bhatt

The Child is Father to the Man

‘THE child is father to the man.’

How can he be? The words are wild.

Suck any sense from that who can:

‘The child is father to the man.’

No; what the poet did write ran,

‘The man is father to the child.’

‘The child is father to the man!’ (1)

Playing at Lodhi gardens-Delhi- 2000. Sagar and me.(PB)

L’avenir-The future-The Playschool of Gnostic Centre-Delhi-2003

Gerard Hopkins, in his work The Child Is Father To The Man, reflects on both the relationship of a man to his father and the relationship of a man to God. It provides commentary on the human aging process and also allows Hopkins to think spiritually about the divinity and humanity of Christ.

My son –Sagar is Ten today.-Feb 28

Sabratha-March 2003-Libya-Sagar, Sahil, Mamta

A time to reflect through photographs, on the years gone by, the shape of life through the vector of the relation between a father and child. On this occasion, I also think of my own relation to my own father, of the walks we took together, the museums visited and the libraries which he introduced me to, thus starting some lovely trysts.

 PINNACLE HIGH-MUMBAI-FEB 2006

Of all the relations which define one’s being, the relation between a son and a father is probably the most significant, teaching us the Growth in Giving.

 As one of my old good friends once told me sipping beer at Connaught Place, what his father told him once about relations-This is one relationship in which the father feels very proud and happy when he can say-My son has surpassed me.

GURGAON- 2008

SABRATHA-LIBYA-2009 -MAY

Notes and Further reading

1. http://www.theotherpages.org/poems/hopkins1.html