Please DO NOT RIP unless…

Date: 29th December, 2012

Dear Spirit of the Delhi gang-rape victim,

I deliberately refrained from addressing you as Amanat, Damini or Nirbhaya for that matter.  Neither I know what your name was nor do I want to borrow the editorial creations to refer you. To me you are the most unfortunate symbol of our collective failure to protect the women of our country. No name would ever get you back to us.

I chose to write you this letter since for the first time in life my heart wants me to believe that there is a life after death. For the first time my heart wants me to wish someone not to rest in peace after her demise. If you start resting in peace, a possible opportunity to reach out to the minds behind your very early exit, from the wonderful life that you so much wanted to live, would be lost. I sincerely pray that you get enough strength to haunt us all till the time we learn to forget the very thought of raping someone and raping our society and system around.

I can’t really even say that I’m sad since my feelings are numb. I’m too much shaken since the time I read about the brutal incident that lead to the tragic end of your life. I have a daughter who is too small to ask any question. What would I answer if she ever asks for reasons to suggest her to return home early, not to go out in the late evening or to dress up in a particular way! Should I tell her men are a weaker species with lesser control on their specific desires or should I tell her our protectors and administrators are a worse species to keep these men under control! My thoughts are getting completely nowhere. I already have told you, I’m shaken beyond your imaginations!

I took some time out to browse through a few webpage before settling to write this letter. I was taken aback to know that every 20 minutes a girl is raped in India. What baffles me further that not all the rape cases are reported. I wonder how the statistics would look like if all the cases start getting registered! This certainly is not an appropriate time for you to concentrate on the numbers but I just can’t stop thinking what fails us so miserably and a heinous crime like rape takes place! I guess it’s the mindset and lack of ‘proper’ education. I refer to the values of life by ‘proper’ education.

I must talk about the action plan you may wish to follow before you get bored with my long trail of sentences.

I would sound insane and too cheap to suggest the following. Trust me this is the only option that a spirit can try and we the people of India can’t – make the offenders feel scared before committing a crime and start behaving. I think only the ghostly panic will refrain these disturbing elements from committing such mistakes they are not supposed to.

a.       It looks like the government would not take any chance and the six rapists will meet the destiny of rendezvous with the hangman soon. You should rather concentrate on Mr Sushil Kumar Shinde, Sheila Dikshit and Abhijit Mukherjee to begin your action with. Enter their room in the midnight and pour buckets of chilled water on them. One such wet experience in a cold December night will surely bring their senses back to act. Oh yes, they will surely think twice about using water canons in a peaceful protest and carefully choose words and not refer to denting, painting unnecessarily.

b.      The night of 30^th is crucial. You have to travel to every direction into the rooms of all the studs on the earth. If possible, wear a white sari as we see in the Bollywood movies and hold a candle in hand. You must wake them up and tell them that they’ll be bobbitised if they ever even think of touching a woman on 31^st night and days after.

c.       You need to pay a visit to Kolkata after that. Appear in front of Mamata Banerjee, Madan Mitra, Kakoli Ghosh Dastida, Arpita Ghosh and Shuvaprasanna, waking them up from their mid-night sleep. A gaze of you would be good enough. They surely will aplogise next morning, unconditionally for their derogatory comments about the Park Street rape victim and attempt to justify Didi’s remarks. They would possibly have the pain for a rape victim and would behave like a human and not a politician. You may wish to mention “I’m not a Maoist-spirit”.

d.      Next, you’ll have an uphill task to reach out to all of us and probably just a sudden sweet smell, that surely your spirit will have, would remind us that we have mother, sisters, daughters, female partner and other female members in the family who make our lives complete. We should protect them till our last breathe and not otherwise. We should be sensitive to them if they ever come across any odds and not lecture them on so called ‘morality’.

I may sound bizarre and I don’t mind that as I am starting to lose respect for even myself. It troubles a lot when one has that eerie feeling. I feel frustrated at my inability to punish people who deserve them the most, I feel annoyed at the silence of the people of my time. I hope you understand the intention of the letter is not to make the seriousness of your demise light by suggesting such apparently funny plan of action. They are nothing but helpless expression of my anger. I hope the spirit that is shown in Delhi by thousands of peaceful protesters do not die so easily and remain restless till we bring about the real change we desire to have. My heart goes out to your family and friends. I pray that they get enough courage to fight the trying time. I pray their tender emotional bruises are healed as fast as it can.

My dear misfortunate sister, you rest in peace and let the spirit of change for a better and safer tomorrow continue to remain restless. Let it remain restless until our female members of the family stop feeling unsafe amongst us, the male members of the society. The spirit of change should keep us alert and determined unless our protectors/law makers/administrators stop fooling us and start taking proper care of their business.

Take care.

Sincerely ashamed,

Pratik Tarafdar

N.B. The spirit of change that we deserve should remain unfazed even if the media loses interest in it.

Sorry Thakur!!!

Dear Robi Dadu,

To begin with I wish you many happy returns of the day. Hope you don't mind me calling you Dadu, the great grand father. I'm only 35 and you are almost six times my age. Who wouldn't like to have a talented, smart, handsome Dadu like you! As far as ‘Robi’ is concerned, it indeed is a diversion from your English avatar of Rabindranath Tagore but I like it that way. The short and sweet Robi brings you closer and not the anglicised ‘Tagore the Rabindranath’.

I’m not really sure whether there is any life beyond death but I assume there is and a busier one for very special personalities like you. After all we hardly give you any chance to enjoy life after a peaceful demise. 

Since my childhood, I have hardly witnessed any occasion where the distinguished guests had their own expression while delivering their speech... They always borrowed expression from you... 'Kobir bhasay...' Be it Panchanan Babu in his Robindra Jayanti speech or the so called 'intellectuals' of my generation, my Baba's generation and his Baba's generation or be it, how could I miss, our very own Didi. Didi leaves no opportunity to refer to your 'where the mind is without fear and the head is held high'... Guess she would even try to cure all the ‘Maa’ and ‘Manush’ spondylitis patients with the same quotation.  

Don't you ever get angry for such mass reference of your quotes!!! When'll they grow up to have their own 'bhasha'!!! 

Dadu, you are one of the greatest brands that not only Bengal, I would say, the world has ever produced. Anything that smells ‘Tagore’ sells like hot cakes. Keeping a collection of your works in the personal library, whether one reads them or not, uplifts the status in the society. Whether one really enjoys the traditional presentation of your songs or not, playing and displaying those CDs give orgasm to many as true flag bearer of the ‘Bangla Sanskriti’ – the Bengali Culture. Publishers, music companies, film producers, musicians even columnists are equally respectful to you as they are to Goddesses Durga, Kali or South sensation Lord Balaji. You have helped so many to make so much!!! Unfortunately, overwhelmed by the sheer volume of business they tend to portray you so BIG that hundreds of commoners like me feel at times that you are a monarch of sort who should be seen from a distance and can’t be touched or felt. 

Don't you ever feel pained, sandwiched between the hypocrisy of these self-appointed guardians of your creations and over dose of affection derived from the lazy, impotent approach to creating something new and fresh!!! 

Dadu, you showed respects and appreciated your contemporary talents. Why most of your followers are so myopic and allergic to experiments! Why can't Bengalis in this part of the border think beyond you? Be it naming a library, town hall or anything that get public attention or making a reference point! It starts with you and ends there! Isn’t it dangerous? Celebrating your works is indeed great but over-doing it is so disgusting! Isn't it you who always advocated change, experiments and innovations in most of your works? Wish you could tell these people to grow up and be original.

Look at the irony Dadu. They speak so loud about their respect for you but can't even guard a small medal that you brought to India and so much of proud along. They make us listen to the same tune sung in a most painful fashion possible zillion times a day in every crossings of Kolkata but don't even celebrate the true spirit of humanism that you championed through out your life. Instead they continue to trade the path of populism. 

Earlier it was the uncalled for ‘Dadagiri’ of Visva-Bharati who forced us to accept the boring productions of your creations and the sleepy renditions of your music. And now we have few intellectuals who cry foul whenever there is an attempt to experiment with the presentation of your music! Do they think you are their ancestral property!!! What's their problem if your rich philosophy reaches out to the Gen Next - the way they connect it to it! After all these band of youngsters are not causing any harm to the mankind by singing the song the way they want to. At least credit them for their ability to experiment.

Dadu, you were a free-spirited man. I feel sorry how they, your so called followers confined you to a temple like a God – ‘Thakur’. Guess they are so obsessed with elevating their status by associating with the brand Robi Thakur that they forget sometimes that you were a man of flesh and blood with a surname called Thakur! Do they otherwise ever reach out to God since the very approach of finding Him in a shrine is so faulty! The mistake is repeated ever and ever again. 

Sorry my beloved Dadu!!! You have to bear with this continued torture. The intensity would only increase every 25 years. Did you have a chance to watch the recent release ‘Bhooter Bhabishyat’ (Future of the Past), a wonderfully crafted Bengali satirical comedy? If not, you must watch it. You never know… You might get ideas how to secure your peace after death J

With love and due respect…

Pratik from West Bengal

*** The opinions are entirely mine and not to hurt any individual’s sentiment about Gurudev.

Our Journey to Parenthood – Part III & IV

This is a humble effort to frame our journey of 37 and a half weeks into closer to 3500 words. The idea is to share our experience and joy with our well-wishers as we truly believe that the joy doubles when it’s shared. The entire narration is divided into four parts to make the reading as less boring as possible. Further more, there are breaks within the four parts to offer ease at reading. Please do share your feedback below the post that it stays here with the blog.

Our Journey to Parenthood – Part III

Our beloved cat came back to her normal affection to fish and non-vegetarian food items by the time she entered her 2^nd trimester. She came back home after 22 days. We both were eager to feel our Junior. It was in the 5^th month we got the pleasure of feeling the baby for the first time. Just a mild vibration – she felt it within and I by touching her bump. A priceless moment. Parenthood is, I guess, are full of them.

My partner started enjoying her pregnancy way more than the previous trimester. She continued going to school and Junior started becoming hyper active when Ruhi would take her scheduled classes. Only time would tell whether our Junior enjoyed being part of the classroom session or hated it. The reasons of the hyper movement while inside the class is still unknown J

Ruhi surprised everyone by remaining super normal and adequately active. She did not do anything that the doctor had asked her not to and did everything that she was allowed to. Only Maa’s list of embargos increased with the advancement of her pregnancy. We enjoyed being in the public places and do normal things. Ruhi never tried to hide her bumps or felt embarrassed going out in the public. I respect and admire that spirit. It’s such a nice phase of life. We did have our share of roaming on foot be it evening walk or checking out on the local Durga idols. Pregnancy allows a couple to come closer, emotionally and take the commitment of being together to its next level.

If our Junior develops a knack for Bollywood, no one but us are to be held responsible. It used to be an exciting affair to watch movies in theatre with the Junior inside. We did watch a couple of them, ‘Mere Brother Ki Dulhan’ being the last one.

The suspense to know the gender of the baby is a great fun. Various traditional theories would suggest their own findings and trust me they are utterly bogus. I was more than vigilant to spot the gender in the second scan but couldn’t and left it there to wait and be pleased at the gift of nature. The second scan to eliminate anomalies did intrigue us by seeing various tiny body parts of the baby. Ruhi and I were smiling like babies. It gave us the first visual image of our bundle of joy.

I found the only advantage of knowing the gender of the baby helps in deciding the name. It straightway reduces the efforts by half. Google has made the process of sourcing options of names much simpler these days. With more options comes more confusion. Our family has a tradition of naming all its boys names that start with the letter P. Very few girls have names starting with the letter P. We didn’t want to be biased. I downloaded more than 800 names of each gender and kept it stored in my handheld that we could take a call even sitting in the hospital.

Our Journey to Parenthood – Part IV

Women are luckier in regards to getting gifts. When we get married, gifts are showered to the girls and when they get pregnant the same is repeated. Two baby showers were due - one from my Maa’s side in the 7^th month and the other in the 9^th month of pregnancy from my Mother-in-law’s side. My Maa surprisingly gathered some extra energy to manage the show. She surely with some external support would prove to be a great event manager. It was the first big get together at home after my marriage. We enjoyed all the attention together and only Ruhi all the gifts. My Mother-in-law joined us before the ‘saadh’ scheduled in the 9^th month. It was another opportunity to feast with our well wishers. The theory of sharing joys applies every where.

I don’t know what the exact reason was! Was it the attention of our well wishers or something else! To our surprise, Ruhi managed some additional glow to her beauty. Does the joy of motherhood do the tricks? It’s indeed great seeing a girl graduating to a woman by participating in the process of creation of life. I salute all the mothers.

We had only one disturbing observation in our journey. While accompanying Ruhi to various places during her pregnancy, I realized the sensitivity of the people by and large had a great shift. Great shift for the worse. We saw our parents would always leave seats for elders, pregnant women to offer them comfort and so were we taught to practice. I did take notice of most of the people that a pregnant woman with her heavy bump trying to keep balance in public transport or any other place does not urge them to offer their seats any more. I felt really sad. What are we practicing!!! What are we teaching our children!!!

It was 8^th October. We went to the clinic for Ruhi’s last scan for the baby. The scan report was fine and did not suggest anything to worry about. Ruhi was keen for a normal delivery. Not that our contemporary pregnant company in Mumbai, Aishwarya had any role to play there. The number of visits to the gynecologist increased. This is the time of the journey when it seems that let the baby come out fast and be there in front of our eyes. It starts to feel that the wait is too long. But that’s how it’s engineered. We realized quite clearly that in private space the doctors would not really be keen to facilitate a normal delivery. After all it takes a lot of time for the doctor to deliver one baby, normally. We had to prepare our mind for a c-section. We can pursue the doctor to an extent and not beyond.

No false pain, no complications and just the doctor’s suggestion got us packing for her admission to the hospital. It was two and a half weeks before the scheduled date of delivery. The doctor asked whether we have any preference of time for the operation. The answer was a polite no. The doctor sighted the reason of decreasing level of fluid inside for the operation though. We never argued his observations. He is after all a very nice man to deal with.

Ruhi was admitted to the hospital on 29^th evening. She was absolutely normal and as excited as we all were. That sense of night before the board results came back to us. The only expectation that we had, the only prayer that we had is of a safe delivery of her and a normal, healthy baby. She was given a sleeping pill to avoid anxiety before the D Day. We spoke on phone in the night before she went off to sleep. I thankfully managed my sleep without any pill.

30^th October, 2011. A red letter day in our life. The lazy I who seldom wakes up early unless there is an early morning flight to catch, got out of bed before the alarm rang. I landed at the hospital before the permissible hour to meet ‘patients’. The door of Ruhi’s cabin was closed. She was changing to wear the dress for the operation theatre and was preparing to change our future for ever.

It was time to leave her cabin and start waiting out-side of the OT for the first sight of our new member in the family. Maa, Mother-in-Law, Dada, my brother-in-law Riku and I saw her from a distance before she entered the OT. Partha’da, the consultant doctor asked me – ‘Hey what have you ordered for? – a boy or a girl?’ I smiled, ‘Please go get us a normal and healthy baby, fast J’ was my response. He soon disappeared behind the closed doors of the OT.

The wait seemed eternity to all. All my family members looked extremely nervous and tensed. I chose to remain engaged in light discussions to ease their tension. Did we hear a baby’s cry!!! After a while a junior doctor appeared from the OT with a baby in his hand, wrapped in a cotton cloth. He declared ‘It’s a girl’. We saw an angel, our gift of life.

Every one came rushing to the baby cot. The only centre of attraction was the yet to be named, few minutes old baby girl. Jet black hair, pink skin, red lips, wide eyes made her look like a doll. She was crying and actively moving her tiny legs and hands. She captivated everyone’s attention around her. She took my heart away. I wanted Ruhi to join us fast.

I was waiting. After some time she was brought to her cabin.

‘So, the brand new Maa, get prepared to deck your baby up. Get all the hair bands, hair clips for her’ – I greeted her. She was always slightly inclined for a baby girl. According to her the joy of getting a girl ready is more than a baby boy. She finds the dresses of boys boring. Few of the reasons to be more inclined towards girls.

A broad smile on her face and twinkle in her eyes were the only response. Sometimes eyes speak louder than the spoken words. The baby was sleeping in her cot. I sat by her bed. Our family members had already spent some time with the new born and brand new Maa by then. They left us alone in the room. The nurse too probably wanted us to spend some quality moments together. We remained silent and were watching the baby from a distance. We were soaking the unexplainable feeling of being parents.

It indeed was a perfect ‘filmi’ moment. If we could frame it, the caption would read ‘U Me Aur Hum’…

Our Journey to Parenthood – Part II

This is a humble effort to frame our journey of 37 and a half weeks into closer to 3500 words. The idea is to share our experience and joy with our well-wishers as we truly believe that the joy doubles when it’s shared. The entire narration is divided into four parts to make the reading as less boring as possible. Further more, there are breaks within the four parts to offer ease at reading. Please do share your feedback below the post that it stays here with the blog.

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After leaving the Gynecologist’s clinic we decided to park ourselves at the Park restaurant, not the one on the Park Street. It’s a humble eatery in Serampore, a suburb town of Kolkata. We were hungry and had reasons to celebrate. We wanted to be away from the crowd to spend some exclusive family moments. Maa and Ruhi seemed still in a haze of happiness, trying to come in terms with what they wanted to hear for so long. I was no different. We needed to break the news to someone. The joy doubles when it’s shared. The break came on its own. My very special friend Sreerupa’s USA number was flashing on the handheld display. She called after an unusual interval of few weeks.

‘Hey, what’s new?’ – She asked with her usual, unmistakable energy and enthusiasm in her voice.

‘You are going to be a Pisi (Aunt from the paternal side in Bangla)’ – I said.

‘Come again’ she continued with surprise.

‘You heard it right Sreerupa. Ruhi is pregnant’ was my confirmation.

‘WHAT?’ – She screamed in joy.

Our joy not only doubled but multiplied many times by the night. Maa shared the news to my mother-in-law and her mother to begin with. Moments later our phones became busier receiving congratulatory calls. News spreads really fast.

The first trimester of the pregnancy brought a lot of changes in Ruhi. There wasn’t any change in the physical appearance but internally there were many. My late father-in-law used to call her cat because of her love for fish and the eating style of fish bones. She would make many cats feel embarrassed by the magical display of eating the fish so neat that nothing is left for even a cat to touch those bones. Our that very beloved cat developed strong objections to the smell of fish and anything non-vegetarian when they were cooked. So came the restrictions to enter kitchen and be around it when fish, meat or eggs were cooked. She would run to the wash basin now and then to vomit. She became quieter and started looking tired. Her pulse rate became faster. I was extremely concerned and Google made me realize that she is absolutely fine and just adopting to the change for her journey to the motherhood.

The respect for a mother comes naturally to us but I guess the amount of it increases significantly when a man gets to see his wife dealing with her pregnancy. It indeed is not easy. It takes a lot to become a mother – much more than what we perceive before we get married. The level of difficulty to bear the child increases with each passing days. The various hormonal changes make the life of woman very different and difficult at times.

People who are fond of movies love to re-live ‘filmi’ moments. Ruhi is a die-hard SRK fan and can watch anything that smells Bollywood. I am a decent admirer of smart movies – be it a Bolly, Tolly or Holly, may not be in that exact order. Ruhi used to, at times talk about eating a lot of ice-cream when she conceives. Fortunately or unfortunately we didn’t really get the opportunity to re-create Preity-Saif moment of ‘Salaam Namaste’ as doctor strictly advised my Preity to avoid sweets as much as possible and keep the blood sugar level as controlled as possible to avoid related complications. So asking for ice-cream in the night was out of question.

We had our own set of special moments. We named the embryo Junior Tarafdar and quite expectedly had no clue whether it’s a female or male. The first scan of the embryo on 14^th April was extremely exciting. It was an amazing feeling to hear the heart beat of our Junior for the first time. It was much faster than the normal. There are theories that if the embryonic heart rate is under 140, it’s a boy and our Junior did suggest with 160 that it’s a girl. We never took the theory seriously but were surprised to see it worked on our baby.

I wonder at times at the order of nature. It’s so well designed. It gives us 40 weeks to prepare ourselves to graduate to a newer responsibility. It allows us space to re-order our emotions and create connect with the new member. I think many of us start thinking like parents even when the baby is in the mothers’ womb. This wait and growing bond with the new life make the event more special and there is an instant connect when the baby is born.

The graduation of becoming parents takes place quite effortlessly. The lady who used to be dead scared about needles suddenly became quite brave to surrender to battery of blood tests that were prescribed. Rickshaw was a strict no for Ruhi to avoid jerking. Thanks to our great roads. We walked to go to places close by and the pace became much slower. Both of us adopted ourselves to the safe slower pace without any conscious efforts. That’s the beauty of pro-creation, I guess. We automatically tune ourselves to celebrate life and to create it.

Ruhi has been an extremely obedient ‘patient’. She followed all the instructions of doctor quite thoroughly and may be that’s the reason got permission to fly towards the end of her first trimester. She left for her parent’s place and I felt as if I’m seeing two people off at the airport. Junior was already an integral part of our life.

End of Part II. Part III and IV to be posted soon.

Our Journey to Parenthood – Part I

This is a humble effort to frame our journey of 37 and a half weeks into closer to 3500 words. The idea is to share our experience and joy with our well-wishers as we truly believe that the joy doubles when it’s shared. The entire narration is divided into four parts to make the reading as less boring as possible. Further more, there are breaks within the four parts to offer ease at reading. Please do share your feedback below the post that it stays here with the blog.

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Did I ever care so much about her monthly biological routine!!! Never ever in last 24 months of our togetherness. But not very surprisingly I did it this time for my wife. I guess all my male friends who have now graduated as fathers did care as much for their wives at one point of time.

It was a pleasant morning of March in Delhi. I got lost in the thought of ‘n’ numbers of 'what if' questions. A call to Ruhi, my wife before entering washroom to get freshen-up did confirm the delay of her biological routine. Both excitement and anxiety gripped me and derailed my control over the sharp three in one cartridge of the razor. I came back to my senses after tasting the fresh blood oozing out from partially cut lower lip. Thanked my schedule that I was booked for an afternoon flight. There was a strange urge to see her and be there by her side.

Next few hours kept me significantly busy with researching various aspects of pregnancy and its detection. Google on the move and calls to friends for 'man to man talks’ adequately improved my general knowledge. I almost knew what to do next and what not to. All the suggestions came with proportionate disclaimers attached with them.

I was scheduled for a meeting at Camac Street in Kolkata in the evening. ‘Don’t forget to visit the medicine shop’ Ruhi reminded me. I made sure to buy the pregnancy detection kit before heading to the meeting venue.

Finally we met. It was late evening. Ruhi and I exchanged smile. She too appeared to be equally anxious and excited. We had a feeling of the night before the results of board exams. Little did we realise that it was just the beginning of experiencing such feelings. There would be many such occasions in future to experience such feelings in different avatars. I suggested her to drink more water that she feels the pressure earlier than usual.

‘Listen…’. Ruhi woke me up. It was 3 in the early morning. Not that she would wake me up every time she plans to visit the wash room but this time it was a very special call. I immediately got up. It’s time to collect the first urine of the day.

A simple test that takes just five minutes had so much power. It tested positive as we expected and wanted from the bottom of our hearts. This test too was no exception. The life changing moments do not last for long. The imprints that they keep slowly grow on us. Her face was glowing. I was beaming with joy. ‘Congratulations’ we told each other. We felt ecstatic and at the same point there was confusion as the slide did not react exactly the way it's mentioned in the instructions of the detection kit. Two pink lines determine the test to be positive. Since the second line was not as prominent as the first one, we were slightly clue-less. A call to Dhruba, my doctor-friend assured Ruhi indeed is going to be a mother and a gynecologist should be consulted for her treatment.

Time has changed a lot. There was a time when mothers used to call their sons and inform after a lot of dramatic delivery of dialogues that they are going to be fathers soon. Sons used to blush and so used to be the daughter-in-laws. I did quite a reverse, broke the news to Maa at the breakfast table that she is going to be a granny soon. It's just a visit to a gynecologist away. She looked very happy and surprised at the role reversal. We had a good laugh with Dada, my elder brother joining us and declaring a niece is what he wants.

Who should be consulted for the journey to motherhood is a big decision. There would be several suggestions available with detailed analysis. We made it simpler. We decided to consult the gynecologist who Dhruba had consulted for his wife's delivery. While trying to schedule the appointment at 8:05 in the morning, I figured that we are behind 3 'patients'. I was pleasantly surprised at the demand of a seasoned specialist. Doctors are recession-proof and never out of business!

We requested Maa to join us that she gets a feel of the new beginning of her next generation. We reached the clinic well before the scheduled time. For the first time in life I saw so many pregnant women together. They were patiently waiting for their turn. My eyes quietly scanned the various shapes and sizes of the baby bumps. I could feel that Ruhi too was doing the same and trying to place her in various phases of pregnancy. Our eyes met and we laughed a lot as silently as possible.

It was time to focus. The 3rd 'patient' came out of the doctor's room. It was again that moment of strange feelings before the results. What if the doctor says that the pregnancy detection kits are not reliable? We entered the room and introduced ourselves. The doctor in his early 40s appeared to be knowledgeable - knows his business to the T and knows how to keep his clients confident and relaxed. He put the final seal on our intention to be parents. Ruhi indeed was few days old pregnant.

End of Part I. Part II to be posted soon.