These Unconventional Gifts Will Make the Day Priceless for Your Dad

These Father’s Day unconventional gift ideas will help you plan ahead the next year’s celebration of making your dad the happiest. Plan it in advance for your father. Why celebrate your dads on just day? Let everyday be Father’s Day. 

Belated Happy Father’s Day and hope you have been able to celebrate your dad the best way possible yesterday. If you are one of those who love planning for the next June 16, here is something that may help you make your dad feel special next year as well. Amidst several offers by top brands promising to provide you the most expensive gift for dad at a discounted price, here is another idea from Silver Talkies. Our elderly parents often suffer from loneliness and the feeling of being left out by their children in the big busy world. No expensive gifts, no gala trips, it is just a little bit of recognition and some quality time that every father looks forward to from his child. Find out how these four kids thoughtfully planned out the best Father’s Day for their dads.

A trip to dad’s place of birth

Not Paris, neither Venice, nor Switzerland, your dad’s place of birth and where he has spent his childhood will always remain la-la land for him. It would be a great idea to plan a trip to his ancestral home where he can recall the golden days of his childhood, his parents, his school, his kindergarten friends, the sports he used to enjoy. According to doctors, a trip like this is a great way to exercise your brain cells and provide them relief and is highly beneficial for older adults, especially for those suffering from Dementia or Alzheimer’s.

Sudhir Mukherjee (name changed), 78, a retired bank manager from Bengal, was elated when his son reached out to him to check on his passport for a trip to Bangladesh, his native land. His happiness knew no bounds when he received the trip as a gift on Father’s Day last year from his son and daughter-in-law.

“While he suffers from the initial stages of Dementia, he often expresses the pain of witnessing the division of India and that his heart still lies in Bangladesh where he was born and grew up. So, we decided to give him back his childhood days. While I have usually seen my father to be a man of stone, for the first time ever in my life I could see tears rolling down his cheeks when we touched the soil of Bangladesh. He enjoyed thoroughly, laughed like a child, took us to his school, escorted us to his home that has now turned into a local factory,” said his son, 48, an engineer by profession.

He added: “I wanted to take him down the memory lane and experience his golden days in the past before Dementia wipes out all his memories. His doctor had also asked us to make him recall his past as that keeps the brain steady and helps a lot in beating Dementia to some extent.”

A customized hair cap for dad

In case your dad suffers from age-related baldness or wrinkled skin, a little makeover from your end can re-energize him, help to tackle his sadness and make him feel young and happy. That is what happened with Swaminathan KV, 63, a Bengaluru based retired advertising professional who felt sad and suffered from mood swings after he lost most of his hair and turned bald. It was this baldness that made him look older. This resulted in several companies refusing a job offer to him, although he wanted to work post retirement. He started avoiding public functions as his baldness hurt his self-esteem and confidence till his son, Siddharth KS, 26, an artist, found out a great gift for his dad on Father’s Day. He took Mr Swaminathan to a city-based hair clinic to get him a customized wig, more popularly known as a hair cap to lift up his mood and boost his self-confidence.

Mr Swaminathan said: “I started losing my hair when I was 45 and initially did not pay any heed as I thought it would stop sometime. But eventually my hair loss continued and I lost almost all of my hair. I felt low, was worried about regaining my original hair and slowly sank into depression. My son took me to this clinic where the doctor took a sample of my original hair, mixed and matched the sample with some false hair and asked me to go home. I had no clue about what was happening till I got a cap to put on in a few days.”

“Once I wore it and I looked at the mirror, I was surprised to get back a layer of dark and grey hair covering my bald scalp that made me look so much younger,” added the septuagenarian.

With the customized cap on that comfortably fitted his head, not only did his sadness vanish but he also felt more confident and started applying for jobs with new zeal.

Donating a healthy organ to dad

We generally get to hear about a father’s sacrifice to give fresh lease of life to his children. This Father’s Day, do the reverse and gift your dad a new life. Organ donation is one of the priceless ways by which you can show your dad how proud you are to have him in his life and that you will never let him go. Kudos to Shalini (name changed), 26, a research scholar from Delhi who did the same. Her dad had been bed-ridden for years due to a chronic kidney disorder and was on dialysis for long till the doctors suggested an organ transplant to get rid of his pain. It took no time for Shalini to decide that she won’t wait any longer in the queue for getting a cadaver organ for her dad and spoke with the doctor for being the live organ donor.

Although her family members were not too willing to let her donate one of her healthy kidneys to her dad, nothing could stop her to see him live the rest of his life without pain. She consulted the doctor, underwent the procedures required to see if her kidney would be a potential match for her father. After the formalities were conducted smoothly, a date was fixed and the transplant was conducted successfully. Today her dad is doing fine and is in a much better state.

“My dad is 58 now and had he been in the best of his condition, he would still be working as a manager in one of the top firms. I was pretty young when he developed his kidney condition and would find him always stuck to bed while dads of my friends would travel with them, attend parent-teacher meetings, take them to tuition classes or to movie theatres. I had missed every bit of it till I grew up and understood why my dad was different from others’ dads.”

“I began researching on ways of helping my dad to cope with his condition. It wasn’t an easy decision to donate one of my kidneys to him but all I wanted was to see him lead a better life. Today I can take him out nearby, he does not have to remain in bed most of the time and can skip his almost daily hospital visits. He is living a normal life without daily dose of medicines, injections and bed sores. I am glad that from last year onwards, I am being able to spend Father’s Day with my dad who is so much healthy. Earlier he would only lie down in pain and helplessness,” added the brave lady.

Hosting a stage show for dad

For PP Kanthan who is in his mid-80s now and resides in Serene Urbana of Columbia Pacific Communities on Bellary Road, it was a moment of great pride and happiness when his daughter flew from New Jersey to stage a dance show exclusively for her dad and his friends on Father’s Day. Kamala Murti, a professional Bharatnatyam teacher in New Jersey wanted to organise a dance show dedicated to her parents and put up a solo performance for an hour for entertaining all the seniors living in the community.

“It feels great to see my daughter dance at this age and it reminds me of taking her to dance classes since she was just 3-year-old. Today she is in her mid-fifties, a mother herself and yet she tries her best to see us smile to her performance and clap for her. These days even my grandchildren follow her and they have performed Karnatic music and Hindustani film music shows for all of us, bringing colours to our daily monotony,” said the satisfied octogenarian.