Bar­ry Padarath, the Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment for Cou­va South, Min­is­ter of Pub­lic Util­i­ties, and Min­is­ter in the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter, is first and fore­most a de­vot­ed fa­ther.

His daugh­ter, Se­jal Lara Padarath, six, is not just a part of his life—she is its cen­tre, shap­ing his every de­ci­sion and ground­ing him through the com­plex­i­ties of pub­lic ser­vice.

Raised as an on­ly child and hav­ing lost his fa­ther at a young age, Padarath’s own ex­pe­ri­ence of par­ent­hood is deeply per­son­al. While he has achieved nu­mer­ous aca­d­e­m­ic and pro­fes­sion­al mile­stones, noth­ing, in his view, com­pares to the priv­i­lege of be­ing a fa­ther. It is a role that brings im­mense ful­fil­ment, sur­pass­ing even the high­est ac­co­lades of his ca­reer.

De­spite the hec­tic pace of po­lit­i­cal life, he makes time for the rou­tines that mat­ter most— from bed­time rit­u­als to qui­et con­ver­sa­tions about her school day. Se­jal’s moth­er, who lives abroad, shares a mu­tu­al un­der­stand­ing with Padarath.

Fa­ther­hood has re­shaped his dai­ly life, teach­ing him the im­por­tance of pres­ence, pa­tience, and find­ing joy in sim­ple, shared mo­ments—whether it’s a bal­let class fol­lowed by a quick stop at Mc­Don­ald’s or the com­fort of com­ing home to a child ea­ger to help him un­wind.

The bond he shares with Se­jal is ten­der and un­wa­ver­ing. Dur­ing the COVID-19 bor­der clo­sures, he en­dured a nine-month sep­a­ra­tion from her. The pe­ri­od away from Se­jal left a last­ing mark and un­der­scored the val­ue of time to­geth­er.

That ex­pe­ri­ence deep­ened his re­silience and brought a re­newed ap­pre­ci­a­tion for the fleet­ing yet pro­found mo­ments of fam­i­ly life.

Padarath sees in his daugh­ter a con­stant source of pur­pose and in­spi­ra­tion.

Her well-be­ing, hap­pi­ness, and safe­ty are at the heart of all that he does. For him, fa­ther­hood is not on­ly trans­for­ma­tive—it is the defin­ing lens through which he views his re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to guide and love.

From learn­ing do­mes­tic skills to nav­i­gat­ing the de­mands of gov­er­nance, Bar­ry Padarath’s jour­ney as a fa­ther has been one of growth, bal­ance, and deep emo­tion­al in­sight.

What be­ing a dad has taught me

1. Fa­ther­hood has brought me the great­est joy and love that any­one can ever ex­pe­ri­ence. But most im­por­tant­ly it has taught me self­less­ness. Every day when I wake up the first thing I do is thank God for bless­ing me with Se­jal, I pray for her pro­tec­tion, well-be­ing and health. It’s al­ways about putting her first in every de­ci­sion that I make. Un­der­stand­ing that her life has been en­trust­ed to me.

2. Fa­ther­hood has taught me the im­por­tance of grat­i­tude, there are so many peo­ple out there look­ing for love. But there is no oth­er love more pure and true than be­ing a Par­ent.

3. Fa­ther­hood has taught me how to ap­pre­ci­ate the sac­ri­fices that my fam­i­ly has made for me. It puts in­to per­spec­tive how dif­fi­cult, tir­ing and emo­tion­al­ly drain­ing bal­ancíng a ca­reer and a fam­i­ly can be from time to time.

4. Fa­ther­hood has taught me to be a stronger per­son men­tal­ly, dur­ing COVID I was sep­a­rat­ed from Se­jal for nine months when our bor­ders were closed. I missed out on see­ing her grow be­tween one and two years. I was bro­ken by that ex­pe­ri­ence.

5. Fa­ther­hood taught me that it didn’t mat­ter what some thought of me per­son­al­ly, what mat­tered was the life I held in my hands and the love that ra­di­at­ed from my daugh­ter.

6. Fa­ther­hood taught me con­sis­ten­cy and struc­ture are key to the de­vel­op­ment of a pro­duc­tive, well-man­nered and hap­py child.

7. Fa­ther­hood has taught me not to get bogged down by dai­ly rou­tine and for­get to en­joy the pre­cious mo­ments with those I love most. I still ran­dom­ly pick her up from school or take her to Mc­Don­ald’s af­ter bal­let for fa­ther-daugh­ter time.

8. Fa­ther­hood has taught me how to mul­ti­task at home, cook, clean, and be a fix-it guy. I wear all the hats at the same time.

9. Fa­ther­hood has taught me to be pre­pared at any time for any even­tu­al­i­ty. The pae­di­a­tri­cian on spend di­al most im­por­tant­ly.

10. Fa­ther­hood has taught me that de­spite how fast they grow no one will ever love you more than your child. See­ing her face light up when I get home from a long day at the of­fice, and help­ing me take off my socks and shoes while she tells me about her day at school have been some of the best life lessons I have learnt in those ex­pe­ri­ences and con­ver­sa­tions. To be pa­tient, to be kind, to be self­less, to be re­spon­si­ble and to find hap­pi­ness in the mo­ments that some­times we take for grant­ed.