Thoughtful or insensitive?

This blog is dedicated to the sweet person to whom the mail was sent.

Hey AS,

Had to share this with you.....

I met one of my bus-mates after a long time. As we invariably got around to chatting, I commented that she was looking a bit off-colour. And pat came the response in hushed tones - "I am expecting". Immediately I was reminded of you and the umpteen hurdles that you had faced during your pregnancy - the long-winding stairs, the long route from the bus-stop to our building, uncontrollable food-cravings , (the much dreaded) morning sickness, crazy mood-swings, work-pressure, constant tiredness......and the list goes on.

Good manners tooketh over (amazing that I have any ,na?) and I congratulated her. I told her all the silly, and sometimes personal, questions which people would ask her, like [Pssst.... those in brackets are my answers]:

• When did this happen? [ WHAT?? ]

• When is the due-date? [ Why? Are you going to help me with the delivery? ]

• You must eat well. [ Whaddya mean? ]

• Take good care of yourself. [ Of course, I always do. ]

• Morning sickness must be awful, right? [ Want a demo? ]

• How many months along now? [ Yaarrrgggghhhh...... why do you want to know?]

• You know what happened to my cousin’s second sister-in-law’s neice . . (and so goes the details of child-birth) [ Stop ! You are actually scaring me !]

• You do not look as if you are pregnant. [You dumbo, I do not have to prove myself to you!]

• Is it a boy or a girl? [It's a secret :).]

• How about the next one? [Arrey... pehle yeh term to finish kar lene de !]

• Oh... I didn't know that you were married ! [Nooo.... I am not. I am not even engaged, you see.]

AS, I remember one of our batch-mates asking you the last question when you were about six months pregnant !

I had her in splits by the time I recited them to her. She admitted that she did feel irritated on hearing this free-for-all-advice, but she had not choice but to node her head sagely. Seriously AS, do people know what a huge responsibility motherhood is? The travails of the mom-to-be during everyday life? If not for you, I too would have been one among the ignorant lot. Not that I have gained a PhD in this area but at least, I am mindful of not subjecting them to this questionnaire-nightmare :)!

Whaddya think, AS ;)?

-/Chitra