Dear Kimaya,

I thought of doing this blog for you so that one day, you will discover what a joy you have been to me. Your brothers have been a great joy to me too, but as your mother and my wife always said, “A daughter will always take care of her father, no matter what”. But for now, it’s my turn, to take care of you.

I remember how I couldn’t speak for a couple of days when I had your brother, and our first child. But you too were a shocker. Here we were, upwardly mobile, in new jobs and new job roles, all planned out on what we would do for the next 10 years as a family and in our careers… when out of the blues, you decided to come along!

Your mother didn’t know that she was pregnant with you. She had gone to the hospital for an ultra sound scan to see if she was having gall bladder problems, and when they scanned her, the doctor had told her that you were inside! I still remember how she called me and was crying, “I am having a baby! I am having a baby! What are we to do?!”. I was in office and luckily I was seated. So when I came home that day, I knew that we didn’t know what to do. Sometimes, life throws you the curve ball and you have to stand up and face it at the plate. But one thing we did know. We were determined to have you. At that time I didn’t know if it was a girl or a boy. To tell you the truth, I was really hoping that you will be a girl. Not because I didn’t like your two brothers, but because I guess a father loves to see his little girl growing up.

We had to wait a few months to find out that you were a girl. And how delighted we were!

Then we started looking for a name. I went online and pored over for hours. But something just didn’t click right. One day, your second brother Kavin came and said, “Let’s name her Kimaya” (But before that your brothers had many other rejected suggestions – Lets name her mother, or log, or girl, or… it was a horrifyingly different suggestion each time). But Kimaya sounded just right. I looked up the meaning and there it was – Gift from God. What else can it be?

Our perfect gift.

Dear Kimaya, I don’t know if we would bring you up perfectly or will be able to give you the perfect things. But in our imperfect ways, we will love you. And make sure that you are happy. And help you to grow in an imperfect world.

I hope that you will grow up to be a gift of joy to others, as you will be to me. Now that, will be your perfect gift to me.