Dad? Ayahanda? Babu?

(Diambil dari Sinetron Perang Bintang)

Someone asked me this question the other day. “..esok, hang nak anak hang panggil hang apa??..”

At first, I thought..awalnya! Uhm is only 8 weeks plus and I haven’t come to my (full) senses that soon I’ll be a ‘father’ (InsyaAllah)..but after a second thought, alah! Let’s have some fun!

Anyway, my answer to the someone’s question was ‘Bro’. Which clearly indicates that I’m still miles away from the land of ‘Fatherhood’. I jokingly added, ‘Sharel’..which reminds me of the Simpsons..”Homer!..Homer..”..A definite NO NO!..i would not want my kids to call me by my name..

OK..let’s start from the top. My dad called Atok, ‘Apak’. My brother and I call my dad, ‘Apak’ also. But ‘Apak’ sounds old-fashioned, like in the P.Ramlee’s 60s-70s era..”Bapak, bapak mau kahwin lagi?”..

’Ayahanda’ macam cool! Very “Bangsawan-ish” but maybe too long for a child’s first word..last-last bunyi yang lekat..”Enda..Enda..”

‘Father’ pun sound cool also! “Luke..i’m your father..” ZZiung zziung (lightsaber)..

‘Ayah’, ‘Abah’ ni ok jela..but somehow I don’t know why? I always picture ‘Ayah’,’abah’ ni perut buncit, misai, pendek, spectacles, short sleeved vertical belang-belang shirt.

Izza calls her dad, ‘Papa’. Not a problem..hanya until today I’m still ‘janggal’ nak sebut ‘Papa’..plus Papa is so ‘over-rated’, so ‘mainstreamed’.. no offence to all the ‘Papas’ out there..‘Papa’ is not my favourite, so I will skip this one.

‘Dada’ and ‘Daddy’..uhmmm..to me ‘Dada’ sounds lame. Bunyi macam iklan Pampers..instead of “A’Aaaaa”, tukar jadi “Da’Daaa”..Daddy? bolehlah consider kot..sebab orang cool pakai ‘Daddy’..Puff Daddy, Kris Kross’s Mack Daddy, Big Daddy Kane, Trick Daddy..

I have check names for father in foreign languages also . There are few interesting ones like:

Italian- babbo ; pap
Spanish- padre
Afrikaans- vader – (favourite!!)
Croatian- otac
Polish- ojciec ; tata
Portuguese- pai
Romanian- tata ; parinte ; taica
Romansh- bab
Samoan- tama
Sardinian (Limba Sarda Unificada)- babu

Hmm..babu..babu ok?