The news of her pregnancy was the best thing she had heard in a long time. She had waited all her life to feel this moment of carrying another soul in her body. She kept looking at her test reports again and again with tears in her eyes and joy in her heart. It was going to be the most beautiful journey of her life, ten months in womb and forever in heart.
As she broke the news to her dearest hubby, she could see a reflection of her happiness in his eyes. He hugged her like never before and she could feel his tears on her shoulder. Later that evening with the greatest joy as he announced the news to his family, the first reaction that came from his mother was “Hope it’s a Boy”. The happy soon to be mom was taken aback by these stern harsh words by her mother in law. All her life she had hoped to have a cute little princess but these words hit her hard. Next few months were really critical for the soon to be mom as she was going through various physical and hormonal changes and to add to her agony her mother in law prescribed some or other rituals to ensure that the first born grandchild of the family was a boy. Nobody could dare to question the stern lady for her old school thoughts.
4 months had passed and the girl entered the second trimester of her pregnancy and as her condition stabilized a bit, one fine morning her mother in law ordered her to come for an ultrasound. The girl was confused as it was not her scheduled time for ultrasound, but scared to question the old lady, the girl accompanied her. As the ultrasound got over, the doctor informed them that the foetus had a vagina. This announcement by the doctor pissed off the old lady and she looked at the young girl with a murderous look and ordered the doctor to immediately abort the foetus. The young girl was shocked at the chain of events and as she tried to protest she was given a tight slap by the old lady and blamed for shaming the family by bearing a girl child. Too weak to protest the girl allowed the doctor to mercilessly remove a part of her soul from her body. Weak, hurt and humiliated as she came back home and cried her heart out to her husband he seemed casual about the whole incident and informed her that his mother was right in doing so as the family needed a male heir and a girl child would mean added responsibility and burden. The young girl was not a girl any more. Her soul had become numb in more than one ways. She was put through 3 more abortions to wash of the sinful female foetus she bore time and again in her body till finally she delivered a boy. The family finally rejoiced the birth of an heir and the girl was finally forgiven by her mother in law, husband and society at large for the past four times she conceived a girl child and the family lived happily ever after.
“Happily ever after” is a phrase that is usually associated with fairytales and the above fictionalised account is nothing short of a fairytale in many ways and our society at larger has branded it as a picture perfect “happily ever after” for more than one reasons. 1) For the husband who was saved from the burden that would have been caused by a girl child. 2) “Happily ever after” for the mother in law who has now finally earned her way to the gates of heaven courtesy the fact that she had been lucky enough to hold the third generation of male heir in her hand. 3) Definitely a “happily ever after” for the baby boy as he would be pampered for the rest of his life as he is the royal heir and on whose tiny shoulders rests the ultimate task of carrying forward the family name and lineage till eternity.
I have my own reasons for branding it as fairytale. I call it a happily ever after for the foetus with vagina that were killed in the womb. It is definitely a happily ever after for them as they are truly blessed that they did not have to face a world that called them a burden, they did not have to face a society that branded them as sins. They were blessed to the core because they were saved form entering a hypocritical society that worshipped them one moment and raped them and murdered them the very next moment. I call it a fairytale for the girl who after 4 failed attempts finally produced an heir to continue the family tree and now finally the society will stop considering her as a baby producing machine and all her sins of producing defected products with vagina instead of penis would be forgiven.