Baby Boon
Nimi Kurian
15 June 2008, 11:25Amala prayed hard as she went into the hospital. Two daughters and a lot of humiliation…it was more than she could bear. She prayed that this one would be a boy.
“Oh! what will I do if this one is also a girl? She thought. “My mother in law will never let her live.”
She remembered the previous two times she had taken girl babies home and how she had to be so alert that her mother-in-law would not harm the babies. Her friend Kamala had warned her so she knew. Kamala had told her that they would just make the baby swallow a grain of rice to choke her or make her drink some poisoned milk. Amala never let her mother-in-law or sisters-in-law come anywhere near her daughters. Now they were big…well, not so big, just five and seven, but then big enough to look after themselves. And then she realised she was pregnant again.
She prayed hard. “Please god, let this be a boy. I can’t go through the agony of those early years again. “In the general ward, she was anxious and worried. The nurses wondered what could be the matter.
“This is your third child. So you know what to expect. Why are you worried?” they asked. But she could not answer them.
Late evening, the maid came to clean up the ward. She stopped by Amala’s bed. She made sure she always spoke to all the women there. She was intuitive and knew where she could make a quick buck. Coming over to Amala she struck up a conversation.
“How are you, ma?” she asked, her voice full of concern. “You have been having regular check ups?”
Amala nodded.
“Oh then there is nothing to worry about. Do you have other children?”
“Yes, two,” whispered Amala.
“Two? Boys, eh?”
“No girls. Five and seven years old.”
“Oh girls! Did you have trouble at home? Your mother-in-law?”
Amala nodded. Her worried eyes quickly filled with tears. And before she knew it she was pouring out her deepest fears to the maid who was so understanding and caring. When the maid had heard the full story she only shook her head.
“Sad! Very sad! I cannot understand people. A baby is a baby regardless of whether it is a boy or a girl. Why is a boy more precious than a girl? I will never understand it. I have been in service for almost 20 years now – in this hospital. I have come across many similar stories. I have been able to help most of them. May be I can help you also…”
“How can you help me?” asked Amala. “The baby is already formed, nothing is going to change its sex…”
“Well…you leave it to me. Do you trust me? I will help you. Don’t worry. But it will cost you.”
“How much? I don’t have much money with me now. At the moment I have 500 ruppees that I have saved. My husband doesn’t know about that.”
“You can pay me in two instalments. I will take the 500 ruppees now. Later after you have the baby you can arrange for the next instalment of 500 ruppees.”
Amala was so desperate for a miracle that she quickly handed over the money. She didn’t even ask what she would do. The maid quickly slipped the money into her blouse.
“Relax. Now I am there everything will be fine. Just go ahead and have your baby.”
Amala almost believed her. She relaxed, closed her eyes and went to sleep. In the middle of the night the pains began. And then there was mayhem. A couple of other women too were close to delivery. The nurses were rushed. The doctors were busy.
Women were herded into the delivery room. Loud screams and sobbing and then the sound of a baby crying.
It seemed to Amala as if a hundred women were giving birth at the same time. Soon it was her turn. She was wheeled in. She could not remember anything of her delivery – for all the time she was praying for that one miracle. After her delivery, she was scared to open her eyes and look at her child.
She could hear the doctors and nurses saying something. May be they were telling her that her baby was a boy…or worse a girl. But she was not going to listen. She shut her ears and didn’t hear anything they said, except the loud, lusty cries of the baby.
In the morning, the maid came to her. She was smiling.
“Well, I am glad to have been of help,” she said. “You now have a boy child.”
Amala smiled disbelievingly.
“Wait, I will bring the child. Only then will you believe me!” So saying she went out of the ward. Within seconds she was back with a baby. She handed the baby over to Amala who eagerly stretched out her hands to grab her baby. She saw that it was male. She checked the tag – it had her name and bed number on it. Amala – Bed no. 9. Amala was so happy, she promised the maid an extra 500 ruppees. She had no idea what the maid had done for her to get a boy child. But she didn’t really care and she didn’t want to find out. All she knew was that now she could take home a boy child. A boy child who would be loved and cared for by everyone in the house.
When her husband came in later in the morning, she was able to tell him that he now had a son. He was overjoyed. He wished he had been with her during her delivery. He was so sure that this time around too it would be a girl that he did not feel the need to hang around all night.
But by midmorning things began to go wrong. There was a lot of commotion at the end of the ward. A man was shouting at the nurse.
“But early this morning I was told that my wife delivered a male child. Now you are bringing me this girl child. How can this be?”
The nurse was placating him, showing him the tag with his wife’s name and bed number on it. It said Miriam – Bed No. 2. She was reassuring him that this was his child. Then a brainwave hit her and she said, “Is it because it is a girl child that you do not want to take her home?”
“Oh don’t say that,” said the man in shocked tones. “I don’t care if my child is a girl or a boy. I only want MY child! Can’t you understand that? I don’t want to spend the rest of my life bringing up somebody else’s child and wondering where my child is!”
Soon the noise became so loud that the doctors came around.
And still there was no settlement. Amala listened to all this noise with trepidation. She felt cold fingers clutching her heart. She thought to herself, “Could it be?”
Not finding a solution the police were called in.
And then things happened in a rush. It became a police case and then a court case and within days a DNA test of the babies born on the night of August 5 was ordered.
The maid was no where to be found. The hospital suspecting the maid had a hand in this mischief alerted the police. While the search was on for her, the DNA test results were out.
Amala’s baby was a girl. Miriam’s baby was a boy!
