Although an imminent naming ceremony does not necessarily follow a wedding, some brave souls do take that stride and cross the crevice between a married couple and a family. The hesitation and reluctance of the majority may be rooted in an awareness of the rising human population that threatens to soon be verminous, the financial costs and insecure incomes, or the gamble that procreation is.
In the spacious corridor outside the labour wards, two men sat in the opposite rows of seats. Both would occasionally acknowledge the other's presence with a smile when they looked up from their smartphones, waiting for data to download, or when they occasionally paced the hallway and nearly bumped into each other because they weren't looking up. With their wives in labour, they had opted to be alone in their anticipation, only to be anxiously lonely.
A nurse emerged from the ward and invited one of them, Shiv, in, so that he could cut the umbilical cord. He went in grinning, dabbing at the beaming tots of sweat on his forehead. He emerged relieved and joyous at once. His excitement started finding its way to his near and dear ones, bouncing off a series of cellular towers. He keyed in something on his phone, possibly replete with typographical errors he was too overwhelmed to see. At last, he turned to, Eshwar, the man who was physically around: "It's... he's a boy, my bundle of joy!" The auditory jab of joy pulled Eshwar out of his anxiety for a moment, and he shook Shiv's hand, before going distrait again. Shiv consoled him, "it'll be your turn soon, buddy. Don't worry!" And Eshwar nodded and flashed a feeble smile.
Not long after, the nurse beckoned Eshwar to begin his fatherly duties. Eshwar walked in, wide eyed, briefly and instinctively glancing at Shiv, who held his thumbs up.
A few minutes later, Eshwar plodded out and sank heavily into a seat. Shiv, who was now ringing his acquaintances, saw Eshwar from the corner of his eye, put his phone away, and strode toward him.
"Congratulations, buddy!"
Eshwar did not look up, but mumbled a thank you.
"What's the matter, buddy? Worrying about the school fees already?"
"I wish that was all. I would've found a second job, bought life insurance, and worked myself to death to arrange for the funds. But..."
"But? Are your wife and child all right? Any medical complications?"
Eshwar shook his head. "They're fine."
"Then?"
"It's a girl," Eshwar broke down and was sobbing.
Shiv was shocked by what he was witnessing. "Dude?" he said, the tone conveying bemusement, "seriously? In this day and age?"
Eshwar remained silent.
"Hey! The world's moving towards a more equal place, where men and women aren't treated as separate species. The governments are chipping in with schemes to promote girls' education and safety, there is talk of reserving Parliamentary seats for women, the corporate world has been fairer to the fairer sex than traditional institutions and organizations, and this enlightened mindset is permeating more and more corners of this country. Have you ever read a newspaper or watched TV soon after examination results are announced? The girls always finish on top."
With Eshwar still motionless, Shiv put an arm round him and said: "You must be celebrating, not moping around!"
Eshwar turned to Shiv, and smirked. "Are you serious?" he began, "would you trade your boy for a girl? A child who is always under threat, ever stalked by predators, as a tot in the playground, through school, as a teen, as a young lady, as a woman? Why would anyone, any rational person, want to sire an offspring they cannot safeguard, whose well-being they cannot promise in absolute certainty? Why bring into this world a life that is more likely to be tormented than allowed to blossom?"
Shiv just stared, as Eshwar turned to him and then peered into the distance. "Why, why would you want a child whose only haven, if at all, is the home? A haven that too might be vitiated, and by none less than her own father? Have you been reading the papers and watching the news, my friend?"
Eshwar's gaze at Shiv was an amalgamation of panic, despair, frustration, and disdain at gratuitous advice.
"Have you been following the news? Don't you know of these rallies and agitations that call for vicious punishments like castration and even death to the perpetrators every time sexual assault makes the headlines? Are you too daft to get the drift? All men are sexual demons yearning to ravage women, restrained not by the fear of prevailing laws and police and courts, but starved of opportunities. The only way to keep their actions in check is by constantly lasing them, reminding them of the ruthless law waiting to snipe them for good. But, what if I...I... you know, do something to my daughter when I am entrusted with her care? What if the chance blinds me to the comeuppance of my actions? What if I get insulated to the deterrence of the sin, the shame, the castration, and the death penalty, and anything else that is prescribed as just desert for a deplorable debauchee? I hope someone comes up with something that can never be ignored and soon; some stigmata that is seared into the soul of your being so that every breath cautions you."
With Eshwar seeming oblivious to where he was and what he was saying, Shiv tried to shake him out of his thought fit.
"Why me? Why me? Why a girl?" Eshwar began gasping for breath and collapsed. Shiv walked alongside the gurney as Eshwar was wheeled into the Emergency Room, and once the doors shut, he marched into his doctor's office. He didn't want to, he couldn't afford to, gamble again.
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