Mom's Nightmare

She kept pushing; still the doctor kept saying push a little harder. She took a deep breath and then gave the push with her hands holding the sides of the bed tightly. 

 

“The head is out” the doctor exclaimed, keep pushing he continued. She kept pushing until the whole body was out. The doctor holding the child informed the mother it was a boy, by then she was already exhausted but the news did make her happy, as she felt her prayers were answered. She had prayed for a boy this time to Lord Ganesha to complete her family. What she did not know that she was going to regret that later in the life and keep reminding the boy of the same. 

 

 Apparently the boy was born on Ananth Chaturdashi of Ganeshotsav. He was the only boy to be born that day in the hospital. He had grown up drinking buffalo’s milk as his mother found herself back in the hospital after coming home from the delivery. It is said that the boy is lucky that his mother survived to live and tell the tale.

 

What was among the rumors that he might have picked up the habits of the buffalo, but drinking buffalo’s milk often prevented him from getting into fights when anyone challenged him for one saying “Maa ka dhooth piya hain toh samane aa” (if you had drink your mother’s milk, than come forward) and he would then walk off saying bhais ka dhood piya (I had buffalo's milk) and turn his foes into friends. 

 

Growing up the boy gave the early signs of humans being related to chimpanzee as he would be often found sitting on the top of the cupboards and climbing the walls (with the help of his back & legs) between the passages that was used for entering the rooms. His mother can still recall how he made her living almost miserable with all his antics, the list of complaints that others would have. His aunt could very well open the Pandora’s Box when the child’s name is mentioned. He even made her run behind him, he thinks that she should be thankful to him for losing weight in the process. There have been so many feats that could be recalled about the boy. He broke the refrigerator’s door when he was being chased by the SisterHood Clan. 

 

Wasted a whole container of flour by raising it above his head, turning it upside down and getting hurt in the process. Got his head stuck in the window grill as he was showcasing his skills. Started a small fire in the house which was quickly doused off. He still thinks that his best act was when he broke the tube light with his badminton racket as he played an indoor badminton game in the hall. His name is associated with the highest number of bizarre incidents in the Family Book of Records. The boy had a good side too. He was one of the early ones who started praying to god and doing an aarti as he tried to imitate his elders. 

 

He also started shaving early as he wanted to grow big, later he realized that he was been fooled as the shaving kit turned out to be a toy given by his Dad. The boy showed his early signs of dealing with money by asking for pocket money a trend that he started in the family. He even invented the “paper ball cricket” (which involved the ball made of papers and tied by rubber band and the bat is made of cardboard) in which the sisterhood clan also took part. Being the youngest and living with the sisterhood clan he would always have to listen as everyone around him were speaking 16215 words per day while he could just utter 15669 per day. No wonder when he grew up, he was quite a listener!! He was also told by the clan that he was the “adopted” one but he knew it was one of their tactics to distract him from his mission. He has the family rabbit tooth that refutes their claim.  

 

As he grew up, he was often seen lost in deep thought trying to understand the world, the universe and in the process gain wisdom and wished to become a saint. He wanted to take sanyas but he was aware of his responsibilities. So he decided to do the next best thing of becoming a Cyber Yogi Baba (Hamari Koi Branches Nahi Hain) He was aware that he had caused too much pain to his mother when he was growing up. So he decided to ask her how to make up for it. He asked her to tell him “the one thing that would make her happy and proud of her son”. She replied that she did not want anything for herself and the only thing that she wanted was the boy to be happy.

 

The boy was stumped, all his wisdom could not help him decipher what she meant. It was only by trial and error method did he came to know that what she actually meant. That would be to cause less trouble or be good in hiding them from her and taking good care of her. The boy took pains to do avoid getting in trouble (still trouble has a way of finding him, after all they are friends). As a result of which he would often hear the much stated phrase once in a blue moon. 

 

Somehow the boy thinks that it’s his mother’s fault as she should have been clear on what she wanted from Lord Ganesha, did she forget that he himself was a mischievous child (I am not his reincarnation).  

P.S. In case you are wondering what prompted this post, well today is the day when her nightmare began and shows no signs of ending…

Looking for Answers

I happened to have made an entry in the journal saying that looking for answers is futile, its like one never gets the answers when one is looking for and often ends up finding them when it could be of no use or doesn’t matter as one moves on.

I happen to have the book “The Fifth Mountain” besides me that I started reading. Funnily enough the note from the author talked about related to what I had written about.

Reminded me of this post.

P.S.: I was looking to read other books by Paul Coelho but none were available except this one.

Take A Stand

Mayur ended the call on his cell phone; went inside his house sat on the sofa stretched his legs on the table and spread his arms around the sofa.

“I thought she would listen to me, and agree to make the changes on whose name the flat is going to be, but she did not….” He said to himself.

After a moment of deliberation, he said “What difference does it make anyways? Once I marry her, I’ll get a flat and a share of her wealth. All that I have to do is tie a mangalsutra around her neck and rest of all the expenses would be taken care of by her parents. Once married, I will convince her to add my name instead of her as the owner of the flat”.

Never in his wildest dream he had seen this coming, where he would see himself moving into a flat from a slum and get a slice of huge wealth without spending a penny. All he had to do was marry a girl, who was constantly being rejected because of her dark complexion.

His face broke into a smile; after all he was the one who was going to have the last laugh.
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Such marriages do take place where the girl belongs to a well to do family and the guy is inferior in respect of status. Most of these alliances takes place as the family of the girl find it hard to get a boy of their status in the community or the reasons could vary from the girl been highly educated, being of too dark complexion or for other reasons.

Not all such marriages that take place are based on “Get Rich Quicker” route there are sometimes genuine individuals involved too.

Our society norms are such that once you grow older, one is expected to get married and start a family of their own and if they don’t do so, then rumors starts spreading on the probable causes for being single.

The lackadaisical attitude of the girl’s parents who treat her like she has become a burden on them and if she is not married after a certain age, people will start wagging their tongues!!

What is the point in getting a daughter married in such a way which appears nothing more than a business deal?

It would do more good to give the girl more freedom and letting her live the way she wants to, who knows she might find love in the future instead of giving her away in such a manner where dark clouds looms over her future, which can only be predicted after marriage.

On top of that, where is the self-respect of a man who cannot stand up for themselves and prefer to depend on their wife’s kitty. The man would end up utilizing the wife’s fund for more than often instead of finding it through other means of resources.

In such marriages, there is a role reversal where the bride takes on groom’s role and the groom plays the bride, providing other amenities such as a flat to live in, in case the groom does not own one or help him set up a business.

Such marriages do go through a litmus test of the society wherein the groom would be constantly reminded how his life has changed due to his marriage (this will only hurt the individuals whose motive was not money, a male bruised ego can take bad turns), as for the girl too, life is not going to be easy especially when the shameless relatives talk about her how her marriage got fixed in her presence.

What is the point in getting married in such a way? so that the parents feel that they have fulfilled all their duties? or the girl to think that this is her fate and that she should live with it?

There is more to life then just settling down and starting a family, something that we, Indians seem averse to.

The society norm needs to be broken when it starts to strangle the people for whom it was built for….