TL;DR
Fifty-five original retirement lines for a father, in Devanagari and romanized Hinglish, tap-to-copy. Sorted by who's writing: a son or daughter, a colleague, and the farewell card — plus the short paragraph you'd say out loud at the function. Everything here follows one rule: write about the work he did, not about the rest he's owed. "Ab aaram kijiye" is the line every retirement page opens with, and it's the one line most retiring men quietly hate.
Retirement is not a birthday
Almost every Hindi retirement page borrows birthday grammar — shubhkamnaayein, a wish for health, a wish for happiness, a nice image with marigolds on it.
But a birthday celebrates a person and a retirement ends a role, and those are not the same emotional event. Somewhere under the cake there's a genuine loss, and pretending otherwise is why so many farewell messages feel hollow to the person receiving them.
Here's the version nobody writes: a man who caught the 7 a.m. bus for thirty-five years now has no 7 a.m. The alarm goes off out of habit for about three weeks. The identity that came with a desk, a route, a canteen and a set of colleagues stops on a Friday. The hardest part of most Indian retirements isn't money — it's the Monday.
Which gives you the two things worth putting in a message:
- Name the work. Specifically. The route, the shift, the branch, the thing he was known for fixing.
- Say the role isn't over, just relocated. He was useful for thirty-five years; that doesn't switch off with a pension order.
On the two scripts: Devanagari for the card, the frame and the function — it's what a man of that generation reads properly. Romanized Hinglish is for WhatsApp and status, where it renders instantly on every phone. Both are here.
बेटे-बेटी की तरफ़ से — देवनागरी (14)
Hinglish — beta ya beti se papa ko (11)
Romanized reads best on a WhatsApp status and in the family group, which is where most of these actually go.
From a colleague (10)
Written to be sent by someone who worked with him, not by family. Specific beats warm here.
For the farewell card (10)
Two lines maximum. Cards are read standing up in a room full of people.
The paragraph you'd say out loud (10)
For the function, said slowly. Pick one, add one detail, stop.
What not to send
- "Ab to aap free ho gaye." Meant kindly, heard as "you are no longer required."
- Anything about pension amounts or PF. Money at a farewell is a private matter and a public message about it is a small cruelty.
- A birthday-style graphic with balloons. Wrong event, wrong register.
- A joke about him being old. Fine between colleagues of the same age; not fine from a child or a junior.
- A message that only talks about rest. Rest is what he'll get. Recognition is what he came for.
What to do the week after
Here's the practical part, and it matters more than any wish: the third week is when it lands. The function is over, the flowers are dead, the WhatsApp messages have stopped, and the alarm still goes off.
Put something in that week. A call at 9 a.m. — his old start time — for no reason. A task only he can do. A visit that isn't a festival.
And if you want to give the recognition a permanent form, this is the one occasion where I'm So Proud of You fits a father better than it fits anyone: a certificate with his name and a citation you write, six medals for six specific things he did, a photo exhibit, and an ovation that people who open the link keep tapping. It takes about eight minutes, costs ₹49 one-time, and opens as a plain link on any phone — which matters, because half the people you'd want to send it to will open it on a five-year-old Android.
If you want to write him something longer instead, the structure for it is in a thank-you page for your parents, and the plain-letter version is in how to write a letter to your parents.
"Retirement is the one occasion where nobody has a script," says Ganesh, Lovely's founder. "Which is exactly why the specific version stands out so much."
Make it yours: the one edit
Every line above is a shell. There's one edit that fills it: swap the general noun for the specific one.
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Generic: Aapne bahut mehnat ki.
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Yours: Aapne 1996 se 2026 tak subah 6:40 ki bus pakdi. Ek din bhi nahi chhodi.
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Generic: Aapki jagah koi nahi le sakta.
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Yours: Branch mein jab bhi system baith jaata tha, sab log aapko dhoondhte the. Ye maine khud dekha hai.
The specific version isn't better Hindi. It's evidence, and evidence is the only thing that gets past a father's reflex to say "arre isme kya badi baat hai." Ten minutes of remembering the route, the desk and the year beats an hour of searching for a nicer-sounding wish.
Frequently asked questions
What should I write for my father's retirement in Hindi?
Write about the work, not about rest. Most retirement messages jump straight to "ab aaram kijiye", which lands as being told you are finished. A line that names what he actually did for thirty years — the shift, the route, the desk — is what he will read twice.
What is the difference between a retirement wish and a birthday wish?
A birthday celebrates a person; a retirement marks the end of a role. That is why cheerful birthday phrasing feels wrong on a farewell card. Retirement carries a real loss underneath the celebration, and a message that acknowledges both is more honest than one that only congratulates.
What do you write on a farewell card for a retiring colleague?
Two sentences: one specific thing he did that you personally benefited from, and one plain good wish. Cards get read standing up in a room full of people, so brevity is a kindness — and a named detail beats an adjective every single time.
How do I write retirement wishes in Devanagari without a Hindi keyboard?
Every Devanagari line on this page copies with one tap, so no keyboard is needed. If you want to write your own, the Google Indic keyboard transliterates as you type — you type "papa" and it renders पापा — which is how most people produce Hindi text on a phone.
What should a daughter say at her father's retirement function?
One short paragraph, said slowly, naming one ordinary thing you watched him do. Retirement functions are full of designations and years of service; the thing that stops the room is somebody describing him leaving the house at 6.40 every morning for three decades.