Mumbai, June 21 (IANS) Remembering her father, superstar Rajesh Khanna, on Father’s Day, Twinkle Khanna recalled how her dad always used to call her ‘Tina Baba’ and not ‘Tina Baby’.

In an emotional post on social media, Twinkle recalled how, unlike other girls, she never had to face any restrictions growing up.

Admitting that she was not brought up like the other conventional girls, the ‘Mela’ actress went on to write on her social media handle. “If my father hoped for a boy as his firstborn, I was never told. All I know is what he said to my mother: That I was the best present she could have ever given him as I entered the world, feet first, on his 31st birthday (sic).”

“He always called me Tina baba, never baby, and though I didn’t realise it at that point, my upbringing was different from all the other young girls around me. The restrictions drawn around their adolescence did not define mine. The permanent marker, one that would later be passed onto their husbands, to enforce the circle of captivity did not exist in my case,” she added.

Revealing how even something small can remind us of our loved ones in an unexpected way, Twinkle shared, “Loss is not a constant ache, nor does it come equipped with a full stop. It lives between pauses and emerges at unexpected moments. Sometimes it’s a song on the radio or when I am applying kohl and I see his eyes, under the same arched brows staring out of my reflection.”

Twinkle concluded the post, revisiting her dad, Rajesh Khanna’s birthday wishes for her, something she misses dearly now.

“It is lurking within every birthday when I wake up in excitement before my heart sinks. The man who loved words, always used them in a precise order. These things could not be tampered with, replaced or changed. Just the way he didn’t like anyone moving his books, glasses and packets of Dunhill. Year after year, he said the same thing. Something that no one else can ever say again, “Happy birthday to you too, Tina baba”,” she wrote on the photo-sharing app.

“Father’s Day may fall in June, but for me it will always be in December”, she signed off.

–IANS

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