Leena lives in Dubai, she visits her parents in Chennai every year. She looks forward to the time she spends with her parents. It had been three years since she visited her parents, thanks to the pandemic! The excitement of ‘home-coming’ when the plane lands on the native soil is something she experiences even after 20 years of living in another country. Every time she visited Chennai, her father would come to “receive” her at the airport, a long-lost tradition of welcoming people from the journey. He would wait in the hustle and bustle of the airport arrival, looking for his daughter and grand kids- his eyes scanning every passenger that came out of the airport. This a ritual he never missed in all these years. But this time, it was all very different, Leena scanned the arrival and found an empty alley, she took a cab and reached home. Her father was at the door to receive her. Home-coming was definitely not the same as before, this time.
After her three-week vacation, it was time to go back to her “home at Dubai”, well the vacation had not been the same fun time. Besides, her father missed his ritual of the “receive” and the “see-off”. Life had changed a lot with the pandemic. Leena called her friends to say bye, she would have met them in the ‘old’-normal’ days. She told her friend Radha about her father’s “receive” and “see-off” rituals every time she visited. The “see-off” was as special as the receiving, because her father would keep waving to her until her face disappeared in the far end of the airport. She would keep turning back to look at him, she could see his eyes welled up but a bright smile that sent out his love and affection.
Leena’s parents were older and they needed someone to accompany them, this was another reason why her father could not come with her to the airport. While Leena’s mind was in sync with the times but her heart accepted no exceptions. Radha had the perfect solution for her. She shared the contact details of OK Boss, a personal assistant service. Leena had never heard about a service like that before. Radha told her about the way this team had helped her during the rains, passing on food to her parents, bring a document she had left back in office and also helping her dad buy a valentine bouquet for her mother. Leena was surely impressed with the range of things she heard. She called OK Boss the next moment.
A personal escort was assigned to stay with her parents through the day, to take him to the airport and drop him back safely at home. Leena’s departure from Chennai, was all over again the same experience with her father waving to her till she disappeared into the security zone, but this time Leena’s eyes welled up and she sent out that bright smile to her father and the personal assistant holding her father’s hand.
