The milky way upon the heavens,
Is twinkling just for you,
And mr. moon, he came by,
To say goodnight to you.

I sing for you,
I sing for mother,
Were praying for the world,
And for the people everywhere,
Gonna show them all we care,

Oh my sleeping child,
The world's so wild,
But you built your own paradise,
That's one reason why I cover you sleeping child.

6 weeks before going back to Tasmania
Daddy browses through the meager collection of mp3s he has. I look at his Sony Sonic(?!) library and there are only 5 songs. The library shuffles through them all. I look at them closely. What? You have Kuch Kuch Hota Hai?? Where'd you get that?

ohh...that one.. my friend gave it to me.. I didn't realize..
I snicker to myself and he begins to hum along to my sleeping child...
So do you want the nasyeeds?
Yeah..give me everything you have... especially Raihan, Hijjaz and that really nice one that I heard you play on the laptop just now.
Yeah dad, so where's your hard disk again?
At this his face lights up. He reaches for something in his drawer. A sleek silver square case with the Maxtor emblem on it.
I exclaim loudly. No way! That's 320 GB! And you're just storing away your WORD documents! that's insane!
yup. Nice isn't it? I've got 3 more of those. Because Apple gave me 1 Terabyte of storage free.
I look at it enviously and give my best puppy dog eyes. Daddy can I have one?
He grins guiltily and takes out all of his Maxtors which are already labelled. Sorry honey... I've put all my stuff in it already... You already bought one for yourself right?
I put up my hands in a sign of surrender. Mommy are you seeing this?
I should have one of those.. he doesn't even have any movies for cryin out loud...
Should've told me earlier too..I muttered to myself

I return to my laptop in a huff but his Maxtor refuses to connect. So I use my Transcend 250 GB instead and transferred all the music files he'd requested.
Daddy it's done already!
Good girl... let's try to transfer them into my library. errr about that... nobody uses Sonic whatever the name that library is.. everyone uses iTunes. Let me show you how to use it. It's really easy...

4 weeks before gong back
Maryam! Look what I got for you. I'm sure you'll like it.
Daddy appears with his briefcase in the hall-way. He has a rectangular box under his arms. I get up from my laptop on the floor and rush towards him
What is it? what is it?
Have a look for yourself. He smiles broadly.
I look at the picture in front. There's a black speaker with an ipod dock. I scream in excitement. Daddy this is just what I want! I wanted to buy one over in Tasmania but I thought it wouldn't be worth it and God knows what kind of quality it was.
This is perfect!!! I love it! Thank you , thank you daddy!
I open the box and carefully pull out all the components that came with it. There's a remote control! It's freaking awesome! I plug the wire to my laptop and test the sound system. The sound is clear with a cool bass. I test the drum sounds on it. It's tone is just right.
ooooh I love it so much. Daddy beams. Got it free with my Apple macbook. It's your lucky day it seems.

That night at the hotel...
Mom was busy with her conference. My little brothers were growing restless. And so was daddy. Haven't you got any interesting movies? I search through my laptop..there's prison break.. I don't know if you'll like it.
Dad perks up and tells me to run it. We all settle down for the 1st episode.
Right in the middle the movie freezes. Dad and the little guys exclaim. Hey we wanna know what happened!
I frown and try to set things right but the movie is corrupted. Then I say, well the rest of the show is at home. We can watch it then...

At home
With my tricked out speaker and Daddy's ultra-cool projector connected to the laptop, I opened the file again. Dad made a few adjustments to the size of the projection. Closed the lights. I increased the volume. Adik! Amjad! We're watching it right now~! The little guys scurry in and land on the floor and on the bed. Dad sits near the door. We watch as the story unfolds.
Everyone else is outside wathcing tv. I ask my sisters to come and watch but they weren't interested. All of them were stuck with this Korean drama or something.

3rd night of prison break
Mom opens the door. Wow it's like a cinema in here! what are you guys watching?
Come on ma! join us. This is a really good movie. She smiles and then shuffles in, careful not to step on us. After the end of the show, what happens in the end Maryam? will they break out of prison?
I grin and say it's for me to know and you guys to find out. Mom sighs, I have so many papers to mark. I don't know if I can watch it or not.

The night after...
Mommy was there. And the night after that and the last 2 nights before I was about to go. We managed to finish all 4 seasons until the latest episode! what a feat yah?

a few hours before my flight to Tasmania
Maryam, let's watch that prison break episode that we missed the other day.
I hesitate. I need to do something before that. I'll finish it first then I'll join you.
Okay done!
daddy let's watch! Daddy seems sad. No.. we've run out of time. You have to catch your plane. I look down guiltily.
oooh sorry daddy.. I'll update you when the new episodes come out.
If only I'd had that last moment..

4 months after (June 26, Friday)
It's been 5 days since Father's Day. I wished daddy a day earlier. He didn't realize it though. But I don't really care because as far as I'm concerned every day is Daddy's day. Thank you for being the best daddy in the world. Thanks for all the gifts you've given me..but

The greates gift I ever had came from heaven... I call him my DAD

"O Allah! Forgive me my sins, and the sins of my parents, have mercy on them boths as they have looked after me when I was little"