Pregnancy Diaries 12: Wanted: A Girl: With lustrous tresses

Does that sound like a snippet from a matrimonial ad? It's not actually!

 

Now that Sprout has officially arrived, head full of hair et al, I can honestly and publicly declare that I desperately wanted a girl.

Of course, throughout the pregnancy, I maintained a strictly politically correct, "It's doesn't matter if it's a girl or a boy. As long as he/she is healthy" statement. But as I lay back and closed my eyes, I kept seeing myself walking with a little girl. With lovely hair, with pretty pink clips. I kept trying to see myself with a cute little boy, without hair clips, but my imagination failed.

I come from a family of girls,  I went to a girl's school and then a girl's college. I come from a culture that worships largely the women segment of the Hindu pantheon. In short, let's just say that I have XX chromosomes oozing out of my ears.

I mean, was I really being terribly bad for wishing for a girl? After all, as a visit to a pre natal class led me to discover, people were wishing for a whole lot more. A whole lot more...

I dropped in to a pre natal class which I mistakenly believed was about meditation and about being positive during pregnancy. It turned out to be a bunch of over  zealous parents who were trying to produce Super Baby! The class encouraged expecting parents to have positive thoughts and beliefs which could influence the child, while still in your womb. Which is really a great idea and concept and one that I believe in. However, while I was thinking along the lines of, happy, well-adjusted, healthy baby – and please dear God, if it’s not asking for too much, a head full of hair – you had to be present in the class to understand that competition began in the womb!

There was a couple who wanted to focus their energies and learning techniques on ensuring that their child got into the Indian Institute of Management (?)

There was another couple who was planning to conceive. You read correctly. They weren’t even pregnant and they were at a pre-natal class. And their wish list for the baby goes something like this. (I kid you not)

"I want my child to dance like Hrithik. Play cricket like Sachin. Be a leader like Dalai Lama. Be as pretty as Aishwarya. Play tennis like Leander Paes. Be as famous as Amitabh Bachchan. Be as kind as Mother Theresa. Be as peace-loving as Mahatma Gandhi. Be as well known as Lady Diana"

This list went on for 4 pages. And this couple wasn't event pregnant! (I tried very hard not to laugh during this 4 page recital, but a few muffled gurgles did escape)

So when I came out of the Operation Theatre, still screaming, “I want anaesthesia, somebody give me anaesthesia”, somewhere in the haze, when I was told it was a girl, I was thrilled. May be this positive messaging stuff worked.

Hmmm...

IIM individual who break dances like Hrithik-Roshan and paints like M.F. Hussain, anybody? Or how about a peace-loving leader who also doubles up as an IPL player in season and perhaps a bartender when not…

The world, as they say is full of possibilities.

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