23rd September

My daughter was born 23rd September 2008. I still remember the moment. THE moment. After 12 hours of labor and what seemed like ages of pushing I looked down and shouted “IT’S A GIRL!!!”.
Actually for previous 3 months everyone I met and talked with, kept on telling me how all the “symptoms” of my pregnancy surely predicts a boy. I went from “what rubbish” to “cant be true” to “oh alright! I know of some men who turned out to be okey, my baba, my husband, amitabho ghosh …”. Stupid laws in india doesn’t let you determine sex of the fetus so I had to spend my last trimester of pregnancy in increasing feeling of accepting-the-fate.
So you might be able to understand the smile I had when I realized my little prince is a princess after all. I started smiling even when doctors where stitching me up (and ask any mother that’s not pleasant) and I don’t think I ever managed to wipe that stupid smile off my face ever since. My smile got more and more stupid with my daughters every feat, first smile, first tooth, first step, first word. I managed to come out of the downs in my life since with that stupid smile, which without my daughter would have pushed me into crisis. The stupid smile my daughter brought to my life was actually not so stupid after all.
This year 23rd September, we had a whole day of celebration. We had two cakes cut, two birthday celebrations. My daughter had plenty presents (Though thank god she does not understand concept of gifts yet, not yet Dudley dursley ) , she had ma, papa, two sets of grandparents, mashi, chacha, chachi cheering her whole day. With her every goo goos and gagas we pronouced what a genius she would be, every smile we predicted a beauty queen in making.

Today in newspaper I read about these twin girls born in 23rd September 2009. They were born premature, so were kept in incubator and were in nursing home since. They were only given to their mother for breastfeeding. Few days back when they were given to their mother, the mother slit the throat of one child while the grandmother throttled the other one. It’s a costly business to raise one daughter; raising two was out of question. Besides the premature twins were already incurring too much medical expense.

They say when you feel there is no god, no justice; you should remember to be thankful to the universe, for what you have. I thank my fate, for I was born the way I was born. I thank, the universe, for letting me live, even though I was born a girl. I thank god, for not making me kill my own child, even though she is born a girl.