Confessions and reflections

You know what is adorable and so  so  cute? You  –  when you ’ re pregnant and think you actually control how things go in the delivery room. Oh, don ’ t feel so let down; most new mommies think they can prescribe how the birthing process goes. I was one of them too.   If you’re like me you’ve researched the procedure ad nauseam and are such an expert on the process that you’re pretty sure you don’t even need your  gynecologist  present. All these pregnancy books and sites have these great templates to serve up a made to order delivery.  Soothing music, no epidural, no shrieks and definitely no long hours. You hand over your selection to the maître de and then in just a little while, your perfect and smiling angel is placed in your arms. They present the bill to you on a silver platter and you go home with your leftover, namely the child in this case.           I knew EXACTLY how my baby was going to be brought into ...

When you’re expecting, you’re generally told what to expect (there’s a famous book on that too) but there’s a lot to learn especially if it’s your first baby. When I first got pregnant, I didn't even know where my cervix was, so I had a pretty big learning curve. The world wide web provides plenty of misinformation, but let’s face it: it’s good to get at least some basic knowledge without having to ask embarrassing questions – like in my case, “ Oh so that ’ s where you ’ ll cut me up?!!! ” Time to face the music: 1.      There will be a lot of red.  No matter how you push it out (c-section or normal) you will have postpartum bleeding. This enchanting fluid is called lochia and it sounds about as appealing as it is. It lasts as little as two to three weeks or as long as six weeks after birth. The best part is you're given giant, thunder pads in the hospital because you can't use tampons during this time (it can introduce bacteria into your healing ute...

Laughter is the best medicine or so it is said. But if this laughter comes at the cost of ridiculing someone, how can it be medicinal? I have often heard quite a few people say that they are in splits when they watch 'Comedy Nights with Kapil'. I agree that there is some wit and pun in it. But some parts are dehumanising as well. There have been some episodes on the show which have brought up the issues of sex selective abortions, sexual harassment of women and these have conveyed the message that women are humans. But does that also mean that you dehumanise them? What bothers me is the constant threads of characters like the wife, grandmother, aunt and the much loved Gutthi and Palak.   Why are they dehumanising? Because they are constantly ridiculed. For example, if we consider the treatment of the wife, why is she and her natal family members always the butt of jokes? If this was happening to some of us in our private or social lives, we would definitely call...