Its her second month. She is far beyond happiness, family is contented & full of pleasure. At last, their prayers are answered. Husband watch her with careful eyes comforting her on every move. Mother-In-Law shares her words of wisdom while she listen to every bit of it with thorough attention. Her two angles wonder about her being so special. When told, they are full of joy. The feel of being responsible & elderly thrills them. It's nothing less than a festival at their house. She looks at all the faces, smiles contentedly & close her eyes for a wish she longed for.
As active as a bee she stays for the next 3 months. She stick to her routine keeping a hold on every thing. Well, "Lady of the house" have its own list of obligations. Making everything as perfect as he could, she & her husband leave for the ritual. This is the only change she has accommodated & followed without fail. No matter how severe morning sickness be, how unpleasant it may get to walk down 2 levels of staircase, nausea prompted by the debris Mamta collected - she is immune to all when to comes to god. He has grant her half of wish and now she wont leave anything undone to make him grant the remaining. Going to the temple & lighting a diya is something to be followed as strictly as god's own words & she follows this as her guiding light. After all, God is patron of last resort and her case is of utmost urgency. Its just few months left. She stills feel guilt of not following it from the day her husband laid her on bed to quench her desire. It would have been better to go from that very day, she mumble. I ll double the count of chants anyway, she decides.
The two innocent angels admire her dedication. Burdened with the forced elderly charm, they look around for something to be offered by them. Keen on getting the family wish granted, they do the least expected. Giving up their favorite snack - Gol Gappa. Yes, they wont be relishing it until God answers their prayer.
While my mother narrates all this to me, i carelessly asks - What if a girl arrives ? Do God have time to make a deal with chromosome or else if the power of lighting a diya is as much as changing the gender of conceived baby, why don't defense minster pray for a "Sudarshan Chakra" at Border. God is the most, truly the most we try to fool. And now, i seriously waited for the result. So that i do a better try next. So, here i declared a silent war against the dedicated prayers keeping the sanity & IQ of God at stake. You better lose this time, i mumbled. Though, to be honest i never believe him to be my side. He always doze off when it comes to my wishes. Acting the most devoted bhakt & trying it the first & last time, i took on to say a silent prayer everyday.
Few days back when i was munching on gujiyas & mathris unaware of the contractions happening in my neighborhood (i pity my social skills), mamma come to me to inform "You have won beta" "lakshmi aayi hai. Poor Lady, she did every pooja with conviction & belief. Its rightly said that we shouldn't fight to get what is not in our destiny." She leave to get more updates & console the angles who couldn't stop crying while i wink at God. Thumbs up man, you truly stands by your name. Now please grant me a thing i ask for - At least provide them with the wisdom to bring up this child with care & love. Let her not suffer the curse of being an unwanted child. And, there i go to get some more mathris in my bowl. Though i feel bad for dwindling sale of nukkad wale gol gappe wala 😋
