It's a boy!

It was a usual day in office. The same old boss, the same old Captivate training development, the same old everything else. I wasn’t really expecting anything to change that day. Nothing changes much any other day either for that matter!

When I was about to go for my third tea break, I got a call from my dad. My sister had gone into labor. She was thirty-three years old with so many complications and hence my dad sounded super worried on the call.

My Manager was generous enough to let me take off for the rest of the day (of course with a promise from my end that I will compensate this off on a Saturday!).

Within forty-five minutes I reached the hospital. Many people get a clumsy feeling when they enter a hospital. But I never get that. Coming from a family with a list of hereditary diseases carried forward, the number of times I have visited hospital is more than the number of times I have been to Disney Land!!

When I reached the labor ward, I could see my mom and my dad holding hands, and praying that everything should be fine. My brother-in-law was pacing the ward up and down, and constantly updating his parents about the status.

There is one thing you need to know about the labor ward. When you enter the ward, it might be completely silent, because all the babies are sleeping. But when one baby starts to wail, it’s like a rock concert. Every other baby in the ward starts to cry and no one can be in peace for the rest of the day!

After what seemed like an hour wait for the Kaveri Express train (It’s the train that runs between Bangalore-Chennai and it always comes late by an hour or more), the doctor finally came out of the operation theater. It’s a boy! There are absolutely no words to express the happiness I saw in my mom’s face. Her daughter gave birth to a boy – a mission which she was not able to accomplish!

We all wanted to see the baby. But the doctor said that he should be in observation for the next two days before he could be handed over to us. But my brother-in-law was given an opportunity to take a glimpse at him, while the rest of us were asked to anxiously wait for at least a day.

The next day, I happily took off from office, promising my manager another gruesome working weekend, and went to hospital to take care of my sister. As the baby was not expected to be handed over to us at least till that noon, I was the only one put in charge for the hospital duty. When I entered the room, my sister was lying on the bed not able to move a bit due to the epidural and also due to the fact that she was sleeping!

With nothing much to do, I was also about to nod off in the guest bed. That’s when it happened.

A nurse walked in with a small bundle in her hand. She smiled at me and was trying to hand over the bundle to me. When I peeked into the bundle, I realized it was my nephew. Before that day I have never seen a new born baby. The ones I have seen are only in movies and they were pretty big as the teddy bears I had during my childhood. But the one in the nurse hand was so tiny that it could have fitted in my coffee mug.

Being lost in my thoughts I forgot to notice that the nurse was literally thrusting the baby over to me. My efforts of denial were not heard. She somehow managed to put the baby in my arms. With trembling hands and not knowing what to do, I was almost in tears. That’s when I heard a sweet and an almost silent squeak from the bundle in my hand. My nephew, tried to get comfortable in my arms and when he became comfortable he yawned. I sat down slowly so that even the slightest of my moment doesn’t wake him up. That’s when I noticed him closely. He was a hairy little creature with a dimple (already!) on his cheeks. He was so small and could easily curl up in my palm.

By now my sister was awake. I carefully made my move towards the bed and showed him to my sister. Both of us were speechless for almost a minute. She couldn’t believe that she gave birth to child and I couldn’t believe that I became an aunt! While both of us were staring at him, he smiled or it at least looked like one. That’s when both of us broke the silence and burst in to tears of joy. It’s been two years and the bundle that was placed in my hand has become my sweet little bundle of joy!! 

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