Open Letter 2

Dear Society,

How are you? I hope this letter finds you in jest and jubilation. I am not sure about your mood but I was in real jubilation when I went to a hospital last week to confirm my pregnancy status. You should have seen the hospital with its looks nothing short of a corporate office.

I have seen those grand hoardings quite a number of times, but one got to enter those buildings to get the real feel of it. The hospital that I visited is completely dedicated to mother and child care. It struck me unusual that such a huge building with its innumerable staff exists only to serve mothers and their children. The next time someone tells me women are not given respect in our country, I will take them to visit my hospital. One tour around those multiple stories would make even a radical feminist to concede that we do respect our women.

Well, at least until they see those countless boards claiming that sex-determination tests are not done in their hospitals. Those boards are anywhere and everywhere; all around the hospital, so you cannot possibly ignore their presence.

They do not strike unusual on the very first look just like romanticised eve-teasing in films doesn’t strike us unusual anymore. It took me a while to get over the sense of wonder that overwhelmed me since I entered the building. After emptying half of my wallet’s contents at billing and spending two hours in waiting in those plush chairs did I finally start noticing those ‘Boards’.

“A child is a gift of God best received unwrapped”, said one of them.

Gift of God?

Best received unwrapped?

Wait, yes. I haven’t given it a thought until then but if I am expecting a baby then I must naturally be curious about its gender, right? Then, why am I not?

I am going to have a baby, yes.

I am going to become a mother, yes.

But, what difference will its gender make to me?

And, why does this hospital stick on every blank wall available its commitment towards not revealing the gender of an unborn?

I must admit it took me a while to grasp the whole point behind those official declarations but the moment I realised its magnitude my heart did skip a beat.

I have been reading reports and stats about the level of female foeticide in our country but just like dogs are apparently blind to certain colours, I am blind to stats and figures. Until that moment I haven’t done a basic calculation of the drastic increase in the number of unborn girls that are not let to be born with every slight escalation in the graph.

If those buildings try to prove that we love our mothers so dearly, then those boards within do prove that we do not love our girls as much as we love our mothers.

Dear society, it’s been less than a week since I wrote my first letter to you and already you have spread the word of my pregnancy like wildfire. I beg you to please use your network and spread a word about my anguish towards the increasing foetal murders in the name of gender too.  

Thanking you for your kind support,

Yours Sincerely,

An Expecting Mother.