Review Of Mim Shaikh: Finding Dad
I will begin it, I see Mim in my neighbourhood barbers Clean Cuts in Tooting/ Earlsfield. I did not know he was a BBC presenter and indeed I was shocked. I now know Mim as a radio broadcaster, spoken word artist and actor.
In this episode, I was moved to my heart. Seeing a young man go on a journey to find his dad was moving. Its an emotional journey is one that is rare these days but masculinity is changing and its evolving. My story is different from Mim's. He showed vulnerabilities and he comes from a very similar neck of the woods as me. South West London. In some ethnic communities do not have a Dad let alone a father figure is rare. No one can replace our fathers no matter how hard we try for them too. The void is inescapable they are 50% us. your father cannot be replaced and we are left with half of us when the other half of the person who created us leaves.
They say curiosity killed the cat, indeed curiosity was not going to kill Mim, it instead reignited his fire. To draw upon blank memories, shooting blanks into the absent dad atmosphere
Mim showed us that being raised in our generation is difficult. with Mum's, they do fantastic amazing jobs. Yet like myself we have the identity crisis of being British, but understanding our roots are built our of other cultures. Looking into history in his family and why his father has never been in touch.
Like myself, the father remains non-existent and are stuck with pictures taken in 1991, that he only just saw. Talking to family members about his father's character. His dad is a lot older than Mim thought which shows just how time can go so quick. The abnormal becomes our normal.
He goes to Dudley where he was born and the last known location of his father, but many leads were unfortunate dead ends. Mim then stumbled upon a group of his dad's old friends who opened the lead fully open and he got the answers he so desired for the last 26 years.
At this point, he got into contact with his dad. The look on Mim's face said it all, he flew out to Pakistan to meet his Dad. At first, his dad was utterly reluctant to meet him. I believed at this moment it was over. I believed it was not the fairytale ending I soo deeply wanted. I was living through Mim the desire for my dad as if he was still alive. Mim got a text overnight from his Dad and they met.
It was strange watching a 26-year-old meeting his Dad for the first time. In his traditional outfit and he had a white beard. His dad even cried, what a beautiful moment. They spoke and to this day I wonder what they spoke exactly about, but the story was somewhat solved. Mim even found out he had siblings.
To this day don't know my siblings, his story inspired me really and truly to find my Dad's family. To find my siblings and to be good and ALWAYS present father. Mim I thank you for your journey, being a man today isn't easy you demonstrated the complexities of identity, masculinity and finding one's self through the ones who gave life to us.
Thank you, Mim
You can find the episode below
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p06cn857/mim-shaikh-finding-dad
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