World’s best dad, And my Dad

On January 9, Bob Saget was found lifeless in a hotel room. Syed Asim Ali recalls growing up in the Gulf on his shows.

A vivid memory which always keeps flooding back as if it was yesterday is of when in early adolescence of an 11-year-old preteen, I asked my affectionate father to wear clean-cut casual clothes, become slimmer, have a wavy floppy hairstyle and always keep a duchenne smile.

Stretching his facial muscles and wrinkling the sides of his eyes with crow’s feet, he asked in an endearing way, “Beta (son), why do you want me to do all of this”?

“Because that’s how the world’s best dad, Danny Tanner looks like”, I replied cheerfully.

“Who is Danny Tanner?” he asked me, lifting a brow inquisitively. I retorted, “The father in Full House, you should know about him”.

The year was 1992 and it was one of the nights of the Holy month of Ramadan in the port city of Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudia Arabia where my father worked as an Area Manager with an American oil giant and I was attending the International Indian School, the only school for children of Indian expats at that time in the country.

Long before Saudia Arabia ceased to be one of the most closed-off countries in the world; when Saudi women were not seen driving deluxe cars, when even showcase female mannequins in plush boutiques of the Kingdom wore the Hijab and when no Justin Biebers played famous hits to raging, sold-out Saudi crowds; Ramadan evenings were special to legions of Bob Sagetfans like me.

Right after the ‘Aftar’ time, we would get the opportunity to watch two back-to-back Saget shows sans lizzy kisses, in line with the strictly conservative rules of the then Saudi Arabian Ministry of Culture and Information. The Saudi Arabian Television Channel 2 aired Full House in which unarguably the best sit-com dad ever, Saget played Danny Tanner, a widower raising three daughters — D.J, Stephanie and Michelle with the help of his brotherin- law Jesse and best friend Joey followed by charismatically smiling Saget again in America’s Funniest Home Videos. On one of these Ramadan evenings, my father joined me to watch how the kind hearted and quick witted Saget looked like as Danny Tanner in the middle of the love and laughter going around in one of the Full House episodes on a RCA ColorTrak‘Stereo Monitor’ 20-inch TV set placed on console design Ikeatable, which we had bought second hand from a rich relative.

After watching Saget’s casual sartorial elegance and how he connected with his family through heart and humor in the wholesome TV dad persona, my father experienced a temporary escape from reality.

Gazing at the TV with spellbound eyes even after the episode ended, my father said: “He leaves a heartfelt impact, no wonder you call him the world’s best dad. I cannot compete with him”.

Since I was in the Eriksonian stage, ready to accomplish complex tasks—I entered into a discourse. “Of course you can compete; you have to, but let me decide a few things”.

Taken aback, my father asked, “What do you want to decide”.

In a couple of days, I forced my father to visit Khalidiya Street, a stretch which was hugely popular among locals and expats alike for affordable casual clothing. I compelled him to buy checkered shirts and a pair of dark green cotton chinos and persuaded him to dress like Danny Tanner on a family picnic.

I can still recall how later at the picnic my father’s eyes held a glint of contentment when he said, “I would be pleased with, and love anything you would want me to do even if it is competing with the ‘best dad’, Saget”.

My father had then started feeling a connection to Saget’s Full House character and wanted to radiate the same warmth which he did as the Tanner family patriarch. He even bought me a Nintendo game console, a highly sought out gaming system among kids in the early 90s after watching Danny Tanner taking kids to arcade gaming outings in one of the Full House episodes. It was clear that he was emulating the sitcom ‘best dad’ to elate his son.

Turning jocular like the Full House daddy every passing day, I remember him saying, “I have become sweeter than Bob Sagetand I must stop consumption of sugary foods or else, you might see me as the Full House daddy in the next season”.

But as the old aphorism goes ‘the child is father to the man’, I reckoned that some changes in him were not usual vagaries. He had stopped drinking sodas; he no longer ate high carbohydrate foods and his favorite sweetened breakfast cereals. As years passed by he was reducing weight without trying, developing a blurry vision, his hands and feet