S22: "Where Do Babies Come From?"

It was Sankranti- I enjoyed this festival when I was a kid, more precisely until marriage.

Before marriage, I wake up early and get ready in my new dress until which all the preparations were probably be finished and I gulp some laddus and other sweets. Make puja and ask god to make all my fantasies come true and again attack the sweets. It’s more like ‘Sweetsival’- getting more delicious sweets to eat and I go to my granny’s home and again eat, make some kites and compete with our street-mates.

But..But.. after marriage, you get to know the fact that if you want to eat sweets, you have to MAKE them.

Waking up early, making all the preparations, doing the puja and arranging all the food, then finally if you get some time to actually enjoy the festival, you will realize that it’s gone.

After having kids, it will be worse, although you will see the whole festival in their eyes but that’s different.

Tej-our bundle of love is now studying in 2^nd class. The apartments we live in have a lot of kids mostly around his age.

All of them came to our flat for their kites. I took the position of a professional kite-maker on that day.

‘Ma, put threads for these kites too’, he gave me more kites.

‘sunny, I heard that you are going to get a sister soon. That’s lovely’, I said. Sunny was our neighbour’s son and tej’s best friend.

‘Ma, where do babies come from?’, tej suddenly asked the question very innocently and all kids were anxiously looking at me.

I stood there like a wall for a moment without any expression.

‘Tell us aunty’, the other guy also asked curiously.

‘Ask your dad tej, he knows well’, I somehow escaped from that awkward situation.

I know this is a very basic question which everyone asks in childhood out of curiosity and even I asked it.

All the kids walked towards him and sat before him demanding for the answer.

Vineeth-my happily ever after; He is that type of a guy who is very serene, sorted out and always reacts peacefully to every situation. Honestly, I can’t fight with such a guy who smiles all the time and choose to compromise rather than to fight and that’s the reason we are a happy couple.

‘Ok kids, I will tell you how babies are born’, he looked at me and winked.

I sat there sticking the tails for the kites and even I was very excited to listen what he will say.

I really love the way vineeth portrays a story to the kids. His hand gestures will be very fascinating- they make us involve in the story more and his expressions, we feel like the story is actually happening around us and we actually feel like we are a part of the story. The kids love him for this magical gift and so do I.

‘There are many boys and girls in the universe but one boy will love only one girl in the universe. ONLY one’, he said.

‘Then they will make babies?’, one boy asked interrupting him.

‘No, they will tell their parents about it. Then their parents see whether they are perfect match are not. Parents only accept perfect pairs like me and your aunty’, he winked again.

I was smiling, blushing, laughing. He is stressing the random words to create anxiety in the kids and I was unable to control my laugh.

‘Then, they will get married. You know what will happen if someone have babies without marriage?’, he paused.

All the eyes were curiously urging him to answer.

‘What will happen daddy?’, tej questioned eagerly

‘One of my friends had babies before marriage and their baby was born with tail and horns’, he widened his eyes.

There was an aghast in the room. All the children opened their mouths widely.

I controlled my laugh to the best of my ability.

‘You know what will happen after marriage. You will get god’s phone number. So when you are ready to have kids, you call god and you tell him your requirements and ask him and he will make some magic and he will put a baby in mummy’s stomach’

‘It will be very tiny and fragile, that’s why the baby will stay in mummy’s stomach for nine months and when mummy’s stomach is not sufficient and congested for the baby, we take her to the hospital’

‘Doctor’s do some magic *Abrakadabra* and baby will appear in his hands. That’s it’

All the kids were awestruck.

‘I asked for a very good boy and god sent you tej’ he added.

Tej’s eyes sparkled with proud between those cute jealousy filled eyes.

‘Here, take your kites and go have fun’, I gave them the kites and they ran away.

‘You managed well vineeth’, I laughed.

‘Oh come on, you didn’t even try. By the way it was a very basic question. They might saw our neighbour who is pregnant and maybe they have wondered how and I know you are not that creative to answer such questions’

‘Ask your daddy’ he mimicked me.

‘Shut up’, I said.

‘It’s good that they asked us instead of googling it’, he looked at me.

We laughed at once and we started making fun of each other and discussing how fast we grew and now we can’t believe we have a baby. Between those delightful and engaging talks, our honey basket returned with a torn kite and the routine continues.