Its a boy!

It’s a boy!

Diwali is still two months away and I have already started Diwali shopping! I can’t believe myself!

A typical Diwali shopping at my home would begin a week before the D-Day. Well how much time does it take to buy few boring shirts for the three men at home? Complete half an hour if we stretched our time and tried to look through the whole stock in the store. But if you had to shop for a daughter things would have been completely different.

Planning would start by doing a little research on the latest designs, silks, new shops in the neighbourhood and most importantly what the aunty next door is buying for her daughters, So we could outdo the aunty and her girls!

Once the research is done we would get into the second phase-convincing ourselves and the breadwinner of the family- the father that this certain shop was offering   a “ buy 2 get one free”  and we would only gain by actually buying two instead of one. Before the father could assimilate the statement into his system, and make some simple calculations the women in his life –his wife and the girls had already  off loaded some weight off his tattered wallet.

Phase three would be- setting aside a few days for hopping  from one  shop to another across the city, pulling out all the neatly  stacked saris  throwing them over the shoulder , looking into the long mirror provided and checking  which one  made us  resemble Aiswariya Rai or Katrina Kaif. The sales man saying, “ Oh! Yeah!That’s perfect on you….just right” for all the ones we   tried didn’t help at all.

You know what they say-‘The mirror never lies’.

We are slowly brought to the hard ground with a thud and finally settle for one…or two …or may be ??

Well I will save you all the details of Phase 4- designing the sari blouse, hunting for the perfect tailor, buying matching accessories...Phew!!!

These laborious processes are some of the best things a mother goes through with her daughters.

But this mother was deprived of that pleasure for all these years.

Time for a little flash back…..

About 28 years back lying on the delivery table waiting eagerly for the doctor to check the baby and break the surprise – the Doc asks me,” So what is it you want – a boy or a girl? And without hesitation I said –“a girl.” She shook her head from side to side and said you have a son.  I had a choice of dressing up my son in girly pinks or shopping for blue clothes reluctantly..

I always look at the brighter side of life and decided- there will be occasions to enjoy being a boy’s mother.

That day came when my son reached a marriageable age and it was time to find a nice a life partner for him.

I have seen a lot of arranged marriages to know that the prerogative of bossing, choosing, declining, scrutinizing, looking at prospective brides like a machine piece and finally magnanimously permitting my son to nod in agreement  was mine. Isn’t that the way all weddings happened so far in our families?

Well I agree that was too over dramatic. But you get the drift I guess.

  One day our son called and threw cold water on that too and put a stop to all the frenzy and announced his decision to marry and that he had found his choice.

What??

And here I was- looking forward to “seeing many girls”. What about the list of questions I had put together as part of my interrogation process?

How will she compare to all the points in the profile of my daughter in law I had created?

Now here I am shopping for Diwali- for this girl who bosses over my younger son,  demands that my husband   talk to her and give her attention first  not just his son,  calls and enquires often   about my cough  that I have been having for long…. Everything a daughter would do.

Finally, this home has a daughter.

Got to rush…I have many more shops to go to, to buy a beautiful Diwali sari for her… and then the phase 2...phase3!.Will it be ready by Diwali?? God Am I getting an anxiety attack??

Where is my husband’s credit card now??!!