The First Picture

Last week I went for my scan - it's called anomaly scan or something. I was really excited as I wanted to see the first real image of whatever was in there. After an initial confusion of the names Hepzi and Gibsy, the doc finally called me in. I asked if Dan could come along and the nurse politely told that he will be allowed in the last five minutes to see the scan picture.

I went in and was made to lie on a bed and the doc was looking at my report and asked me lots of questions like if anyone in my family had abnormalities, if I married my cousin, if I had fever in the last few months, etc etc. After replying all in the negative, she applied this really cold gel over my tummy and told me to relax and I was like okay, this is gonna be fine.

The doc was amazing. Her name was Anjana Mala and she was so reassuring and good. She kept the tiny movable thing on my tummy and then she turned the monitor to me and asked, "There.. doesn't the baby look like the dad?" and I turned and I saw the picture. I saw the head - the outline of a tiny nose and skull. Tears welled up in my eyes. I was barely able to speak with emotions overwhelming me and I just smiled and looked on thinking,  two lives created this one life and there it is - alive and moving! How can people not believe in God and his love I wondered.

The doc then proceeded to take vital measurements and the li'l one was moving a lot and making things hard for her I guess. I even looked at it stretching its head backwards and I laughed. She told me everything was normal and looking good. Thank God for that. Finally the dad came in and he was sitting beside me. She showed him the picture again.  He was like "it's not very clear, is it?" and everyone started laughing. Well, we can't get a Kodak shot for that now, can we?

Then he watched open-eyed, in amazement and blissful joy as she showed him our kid's arms, legs, spine, feet and eyes. We even heard the heartbeat and it's something that I will always cherish in my memories. They even handed us a beautiful picture of our li'l baby to treasure. The scan was finally over and the doc finally said, "Very active baby.. It'll be a challenge growing it up!"

P.S - The image shown is not our kid's... I don't want to put it up right now but it looked more or less like this.

Primigravida

Floating inside two years of marital bliss makes all the people around you curious with questions and one very common one among them is – aren’t you planning to have kids?

Whenever me and my husband go anywhere and I mean any part of this world, it all starts with – how long have you been married? What are you doing now? Don’t have any kids? We both will look at each other and smile and say we just got married, let things settle down a bit. Some people really bug me when they throw this question in front of a crowd – it’s really insensitive to do that you clowns! There was this particular woman in my husband’s native who asked me if I had a kid and I was like no and then her face went like as if I told her I had a dreadful disease and I was about to die the next day. She held my hand and looked up to me with such sad, pitiful eyes that I really felt like I was living my last days on earth.

At first it was funny, but as days went by it really got to my nerves. I mean here I was working to stabilize and fix holes in my life and people were like jumping everywhere and popping the inevitable question. I mean its okay but what about people who really have problems – people give them a break, will ya?


So you can imagine how everyone reacted when I told them that I was indeed going to be a mom – yes I am finally pregnant. Then everyone became doctors and dieticians telling me what to eat, what to see (yes, see on TV – apparently I shouldn’t watch violent movies), what to listen, what to talk…. The list goes on. Well, whatever it is, I know that something beautiful living in me is waiting to meet me soon...