Girl or Boy …….

I remember as much, I did not have any imagination of myself being a father of a girl. The thought of being a father of a female species never crossed in mind. This could be since I was born only with brothers and as a result the talks about a girl child or sister never appeared in any context of family’s discussion. Or always wanted to have a boy, as he will, assumingly, will be a miniature of my features and replica of my characters. Or since studied mostly in “Boys only” schools and colleges, as a result of which could not get nicer opportunities to listen to narration by female counterparts on how they look at the world and how they are looked at by the world, how they are treated and how they treat others, how they are pampered and how they pamper others, how much they are loved and how much they love others etc. Or, its provoking more thoughts now, since we brothers are born with an inhibition (/crook minded) towards girls. Perhaps, we had not come across any female achiever with our family or friends circle, or we were not taught to appreciate their achievement. Alternatively, bound to accept, since had been having so much love towards my mother, that only my mother kind of females are successful as result of which we only identified women who has lots of similarity only with my mother.

Whatever reason, I could not imagine being a father of a Girl. I became so thoughtful when I was told by someone that she like to have a female child. Her reasoning was that only female children would be more loving. I am wondering what happened to her and why she should be having a maverick idea. The, someone is none other than my wife. It took sometime for me to realize that I have been living with her without understanding her preference when it comes to children. The same shock I had, when I heard that my close friend also wanted to have a baby girl.

During those days, my interest turned towards exploring how it would be like to have a daughter or a new female member coming home. To cut the story short, my exploration and analysis lead to me to accept a female child and as well made me to long for a baby gal. How?

During that time, Director Cheran was writing Touring Talkies in Anandha Vikatan. In one of his episode, he narrated many a incidents in which the motherliness of his sisters were highlighted.

He penned to say that “a younger sister will treat his brother like his father and give as much respect and love as she gives for her father and a elder system will treat his brother like his son and give as much care and love as she gives for her son”.

He also added that “in a dining session, first thing, a Man would feel is only about his hunger and his food, whereas only a women would feel the hunger of others dining with her”

After grasping this I started bringing in to my imagination all the similar characters. I found how true and real the above statements about women are.

What a great thing I was missing to understand about the lovely humans in the world.

Another incident, which really made me thoughtful, happened when my neighborhood children (Ritu and Anirudh) were playing in the corridor outside my door gate. Ritu who was about 5 years old, told his brother howling brother, 4 years old, ‘Hey! Don’t shout, baby sleeping’

There is another individual incident which I happened to observe to write here. On a Sunday, Iniyan visited us with Dorothy and Vanitha. (Iniyan is my wife’s brother, Dorothy his wife and Vanitha his 13 years old daughter). We served them with some eatables, which were eaten away leaving a single piece in the plate. Vanitha carefully picked it for her, but didn’t forget to ask her father and mother if they like to eat it, as it was the last piece.

During a similar evening with Kumanan and his family, Kumanan's eldest son about 14 years old that time, ate the last piece before anyone could notice it.