I found this while I was browsing through my computer. After adding a para or two, I decided it was complete! Needless to add, this is a work of fiction. :)
Ten tiny fingers and ten tiny toes- Sandesh could not help but count her fingers over and over again, as if to confirm that the tiny bundle of joy, that was supposedly his baby girl, was for real! Nine months ago when Prabha had announced her pregnancy, Sandesh had been really excited. For nine long months, he watched Prabha’s tummy grow larger and larger to an unbelievable proportion. He had secretly tried to stuff an overloaded pillow under his T-shirt and walked around, imagining how she was living her life like a stuffed animal which had been overstuffed in the tummy area due to manufacturer’s defect. It really did not give him a good insight of her situation as the pillow was feather-weight, whereas the tiny bundle of joy she carried in her tummy was not! Sometimes it had been hard to cope around the house, he cursed god for making his life harder by filling hormones inside a pregnant woman. He had heard that it was a torture for a woman to carry a baby, but no one had informed him that it was a torture of a bigger proportion to be living with the tortured soul.
Her moods were so unpredictable that it was like living in a tiger’s cage with constant fear of being bitten by the tiger. She would be calmly sleeping one minute, and crying the next… complaining about how no one loved her at a time like this. How in the world was he supposed to show her his love when she was throwing stuff at him? He had gone ahead and told her so, which had not helped the situation. Sandesh had never regretted saying anything more than that, expect of course one fine day when Prabha seemed to be in an amiable mood, Sandesh had jokingly retorted… “Oh thank god you are yourself today, I was afraid that I would not survive your weird temper tantrums one more day!”
Prabha’s face had instantly transformed from a serine angel’s to an enraged devil’s. She had accused him of being a male… as if it was his fault that he was born with the wrong set of genitalia and had caused her the pregnancy. He would never understand her pain, she had shouted. “I wish you will be the wife in our next life, so that I can taunt you and prod you about your pregnancy.” With that she had barged out of the room, causing him to worry needlessly about her hurting herself or the baby! No more jokes, he had silently promised himself. Deep down he knew that she did not think he was a careless bastard with no pain or sympathy for her; she just did not seem to be able to control her whirlwind of emotions.
The reason he had fallen in love with her within weeks of meeting her, was her understanding and her down to earth nature. She would not nag and prod him like his previous girlfriends had about not loving them, or about not spending enough time with them and so on. The list went on and on and on! When he had finally given up and decided to accept women as they were with their never-ending nagging and complaints about everything in life, he had met Prabha. She had taken him by a surprise actually. His views about women were oh-not-so-great, and he made it a point to openly express his opinion of the “lower species” to anyone who would care to listen. He had many stories to tell about how they loved his “carefree attitude” before they dated and how it became his “rowdy carelessness” after they were together for a month.
“I love you for you, baby,” one of them had said, and later it was, “Oh my god, how did I ever love the likes of you… a pig would have been a better boyfriend for all I know!”
He was not a pig, just a normal young man with too much adrenalin for his own good. He had first looked at a woman and her curvaceous beauty when he was 12; the only problem was that girls that age were not all that curvaceous at all. He did think that the English teacher with the fancy accent was f-i-n-e. He got his first kiss when he was 14, from a 16 year old who thought he was 17 of course. It did not go too well when she found out that he was younger than she was… he would have felt better if she slapped him, but he was not ready for the downpour of emotions that came from her. He did not know how to handle it! He had also lost his virginity at the age of 16, and had no regrets about it. He was the macho guy in his class… the guy who always led the class to Ratna park to play cricket in class periods and the one to plan a strike because the food in canteen was stale. How he had passed his SLC and +2 with flying colors was still a mystery to everyone that knew him. By the time he was 18 and came to the US for further education, women and marijuana were his constant companions.
Needless to say, he finished his undergrad. in record time with flying colors as usual. He also ended up with a good job, but his party life had not come to an end. He would still party at least three days a week. His social life was something that would be of great interest to an anthropologist; after all he followed a culture of his own. Followed by the first Gita of his life, there were many Sitas, Neetas and even some Jill and Judies. All of them followed the same pattern. At first they were taken by his dare devil, carefree attitude… once they dated him, they were a bit concerned by his carelessness… and in the end they were heart broken by his careless attitude and unwillingness to commit to them and leave his way of life.
At first he had thought that he was just dating the wrong women, but after dating quite a few, it was clear to him that women were necessary evil. You can’t live with them, and you can’t live without them. They could be the cutest creatures at one time, and become more vicious than the black mamba at other times. He had slowly discovered that no one would fit his idea of the ideal partner, so he had decided to settle for the one who came the closest to being what he thought was the ideal. He had no luck so far. He was blissful with his simple single life when Prabha had entered it. He looked at her charming face, the pair of sparkling brown eyes and her beautiful smile, and he had instantly known that she was trouble. She was nothing but a package of endless nagging and narcissism. He had decided to avoid her like the plague, as she was a threat to his peaceful life.
They would encounter each other quite a lot as she was his friend’s cousin, but an occasional “hi” and “how are you” was all they exchanged during their encounter (for about 2-3 days!). She seemed to be pretty quiet around him but was quite lively when with her family. She was funny, sweet and always down to earth. She would defend what she believed in with a passion that made her eyes sparkle with fire, and joke with a mischief that made him remember a three year old stealing cookies from a jar. They became friends within a few days, and he started forgetting his vow of avoiding her. He would go to visit his friend more often, and she was always there. Of course he was not falling for her, she was a mere girl who was probably filled with self love that would ooze out as soon as they became a couple. And one fine day, against his better judgment he did something that he had promised not to do. He called her… not knowing what to say, not knowing how she would react, not knowing what magic she possessed to draw him like a moth to fire.
Prabha had always been a diligent student at school, and the ideal daughter at home. She was the most social little girl who understood the pain of others and at the same time could not stand any nonsense. The boys at school eyed her with a mixture of dislike and enthrallment. She was the designated guy-fighter amongst the girls. If any guy did any wrong to any girl, the guys had to deal with Prabha, which was not an easy feat. Not only was she strong headed and forceful, she was one of the cutest girls in class… which made it very difficult for the guys to defend themselves. There were many guys on the road who promised their eternal love for her, but something or the other about them did not please her. She was sure that she would ultimately get married to a man of her parent’s choice and she would end up being the dutiful daughter that she always was. Sandesh was her opposite in many ways… and had possessed qualities that she disliked, and yet something drew her to him.
Amazingly, the talk went pretty smoothly. She treated him with warmth that flowed naturally from her and she seemed to be perfectly at ease with him. They soon discovered that their views about the world were pretty much the same. It was like he was conveying his thoughts and ideas to his alter who was perfectly in sync with his inner processes. She liked talking about her thoughts and ideas with a passion that would make her voice sound rich and musical, and he would sometimes lose focus on what she was actually saying. He wondered why and how he was transforming into some lovelorn Romeo, hanging onto every word that came out of the lady love’s lips. And were those lips ever so red and kissable! He tried to shake his head, as if doing that would clear his mind of all thoughts that lingered in there for her. But who could stop the taming of the shrew when the taming was done by someone like Prabha.
After three mere weeks of meeting her, he knew she was the one. He often found himself humming the lyrics to “Can’t help falling in love with you.” He himself had once thought that only fools rush in, and he was now a fool! A fool for her sparkling eyes, her heartfelt smile and overall just for the person that she was. The feeling was mutual, and nothing else mattered. Life had been blissful and filled with laughter since then. He wondered how he got so lucky, of course until she transformed into Frankenstein, due to the uncontrollable rush of multiple hormones in her pregnant body! He felt all the love for her but at times, she was uncontrollable. The only bright side was, this would only last a few months. The pregnancy had actually made him appreciate her more. Had he married someone with an unpredictable temperament at all times, his life would have been a living hell!
And one fine morning when she woke him up with a start… she thought her water had just broken. Hours of misery followed the rude awakening in the morning. His heart wrenched at every cry of pain that shot out of Prabha’s lips. And there he was, holding his baby. His flesh, his blood, a part of his life forever. Reality finally crashed, after holding the small vulnerable bundle of flesh and blood in his hands. He was a father… this was really happening! He held out his pinky to the newly born pink skinned baby, and her fingers curled around it. Her hand was so tiny that her fingers barely touched as she held on to his pinky. He felt like the heavens had parted and were shining down on him… a proud daddy of the most beautiful baby in the world! He looked at Prabha’s flustered face and knew that he was the luckiest man alive!
Last edited: 19-Jul-08 10:40 AM
