On the Other side
by Safia
(Calicut, Kerala, India)
I am lying down in the Post-operative Recovery room raw with the pains of the surgery.
Humbled, and basking in the glory of the birth of my son.
A boy after three wonderful girls. A second grandson, after nine lovely granddaughters.
We are girl loving family and at no point in our hearts, are we biased, but the unexpected birth of my son was a celebration of the silent kind.
The door just opens.
It is the lady whom I saw the night I was admitted to the hospital.
Her daughter had come in with labor pains.
Then in the Burkha, she had looked even younger.
'Assalamualikum," She says.
'I have come to have look at your son'
In my fragile physical state I try to get up but unable to.
She looked like an aristocrat woman.
She was wearing a beautiful crepe silk sari, and a pretty gold ear studs. She has dyed her hair to what looked to me more of the blond color and not the usual colors we find in people of her age.
She talks to me about the four daughters that she has.
'Soft ware engineer, fashion designer,'She says.
'All are well educated married to good families with nice husbands.'
The proud Mother tells me.
Looking at her, at her gait (she must be in her fifties, but has the gait of the 20s. Come to think of it, even my mother who is in her fifties, has the same gait)
I can clearly see that here is a woman who has been blessed with not only material wealth but also the wealth of contentment.
In comes another woman, the Mother introduces her as her daughter's Mother-in-law. She too has a noble look and is frail so sits in chair for support. Where as the other proud Mama, continues to stand with a smile on her lips.
The mama says the Mother-in-law was working in some good post at the Vidhana Soudha.
Good Lord!! A Muslim woman in the Vidhana Soudha? I wonder.
I didn’t know that!
But I was in no state to get too excited. When I get better, I must look up as to who she is.
Surely women from our community being in the Parliament can easily be counted.
The Mother-in-law departs. And the mother is about to leave too.
My caretaker asks her-
‘What did your daughter give birth to?? A son?'
The Proud Mother says “A daughter"
'Oh! The in-laws are so happy. They have just two sons, so they wanted a girl in the family. And the granddaughter looks like her grandfather. so they couldn't be more happy' replies this woman.
A happy and a proud Mama of daughters and grand daughters!!! I think amazed!.
***** P.S-The reason I am sharing this experience is only to show the irony of a situation,when I was lying down in relief with the birth of a boy,here was a woman who was on the other side. And we all,including my mom and sisters love and value the girls in our family.