Chennai: When parents head for separation and there is a question of the custody of the child, it is the best interest of the child that is given the utmost importance. The closest emotional bond plays a major role there. “Pops” by Balaji Venkataramanan weaves a tale of a 7-year-old Arun whose fear for “the man” (read his father) gradually turns into fondness, a habit-turned- longing to see him waiting at the school gate and at children’s centre in court, regardless of all the words of caution coming from mom and grandparents.
Arun doesn’t know what it means when a marriage comes to an end and he still keeps his dream alive; he believes his dad will be back from the US with all the goodies he loves. Arun’s mom has given him all the happiness in life, but the child still bears in heart an emotional connection with his dad, whom he has only seen in his mom’s marriage album. Arun looks for warmth and presence of his father.
Yet, when at court to meet his dad where he is first introduced to the child, fear strikes him to the core as all this while he has thought he had a monster dad who would never come back to his mom. After the first meeting with dad, Arun gets a bad dream that his dad was taking him away from his mom.
Readers get to understand the child psychology better as the story progresses and the author has done an exemplary job here. “The man”, who Arun found a little annoying during the initial visits at the visiting centre in court, turns out an easy-going, happy-go-lucky person, throughout the story. No matter how many times Arun shuns him, he does not mind it at all; he keeps coming back, every time with a renewed cheerfulness and brings with him a lot of sparks.
His dad’s entry into Arun’s life is definitely more than a dad filling a void in a child’s life. It’s more of a pure, unadulterated friendship. Brushing aside the expensive rides the dad treating his child to or all his pampering the child with a bicycle, ‘Thomas the Train’’ toy or chocolates, the story progresses and witnesses Arun falling for the friendship offered by the man. He ends up developing a strong, emotional connect with his dad who perhaps knows some magic.
From moments like dropping the backpack as soon as he saw his son, the story will only make the readers wonder why such an affectionate person who gets along with all the kids in school and even the PT teacher and the principal, had to leave his wife and son right after the child was born. Author Balaji Venkataramanan tells DC, “readers will wonder whether the man reunites with his family, but that is not the story. It’s about Arun’s perception of his dad - what he writes in his notebook about his dad in the first moral science period and the last period and the slowly-evolving relationship between him and his dad. One day I was watching a video on the internet and it was a courtroom scene. And I have also seen my friend going through the separation trauma and that is where the idea comes from. But I wanted to write from the child’s point of view. What he/she goes through, when parents part.”
