What do you call your dad?

Dads will be called by many of us Malays – ayah, abah, bapak, daddy, papa and wonder what else. But how many called their dads - father. Yes, father. As in “Father, dah makan?” “Besok father kerja?” “Mak dengan Father are going for a holiday.”

I called my bapak just that – father. But mak – mak, not mother.

I don’t know how it came about, but parents are the ones who trained their kids to address them by a certain title or name of affection, and so my ayah decided that he be called father. In my younger days, my friends find it weird. How many people have you heard calling their abah – father, eventhough in writing, you may write just that. “My father sent me to school,” for example.

We’ve asked our papa this question, and he just never really thought much about it when he decided to be called father. Perhaps he finds it cute or charming, but I really don’t know. And since we are trained, we can’t think of anything else to call him except father. And funny thing is, this particular title is so synonymous with my dad, that even some of our relatives affectionately called him father. Yes, father, and not pakcik, uncle, granduncle or tok. Some may addressed him as Busu, while others may refer to him as Tok Mahat if they are talking to their children but, the younger cousins and most of the cousins’ kids called him father. At one time, someone even suggested Tok Father.

It looks like father is the word synonymous with him. But with Afzal, he will always be known as datuk.