I can relate to your experience Archana!
...Though not completely, but yes, the relationship of parents and attitude towards a single daughter, the taken-for-grantedness and much more.  How you and I, as kids, became crisis managers in our families, where was the childhood I wonder... how I had to grow up soon, there was no choice...I'm moved, touched, reading your blogs because it seemed so autobiographical, especially how I became a dedicated care giver when my father was suffering from a terminal disease...how I would weep alone whenever I looked at his medical reports and deteriorating conditions, how, on most occasions, I would go alone to get him tested in the hospital, collect the reports, again alone...all this while managing my work at office...and so on.
But, no regret at all! I'm glad to have owned and shown responsbility at the crucial moments without bothering too much about the dynamics of singlehood, relationship with siblings, etc etc and never once did I bow down to the 'social pressure' of changing my singlehood for reasons whatsoever. Perhaps that was how I could return all that my father gave me by not forcing me to do things that I never wanted to...and I do have my bit of fun because I take life the way it comes!
http://ibnlive.in.com/blogs/archanajahagirdar/2770/61955/a-depressed-dad-being-single--life-in-between.html?from=tn