I want a son…

My maid, who works in my house doing various chores like cleaning, sweeping and mopping, has been working since almost 3 years. She is a poor lady who works in people’s houses as a domestic help, her husband does odd jobs and is an alcoholic, her elder son works and the younger one is in a government school. Her daughter was married last year. Now the same daughter is pregnant and is going to deliver any day. She is almost the one running the house on her own meagre salary. Her daughter has come to her mother’s place for her delivery.

She is a cheerful lady and over the last 3 years, we do a lot of talking, she in Kannada and I in Hindi :). We have both picked up words in each other’s languages and now are able to understand each other pretty well :). As is known, a boy child is still more desirable in India. The other day she was telling me that since her daughter is over full term now, by some logic she will bear a son. I told her that I had two sons both born in the 38th week hence certainly she can not do such predictions. I also went a step further and told her that I really wanted a girl. Then she started sharing her experience of having a daughter and two sons. She does agree that daughters are very close to their parents and love them more. She told me that for people who have more money, it is fine to have girls but for poor people like her, it is better to have sons. She knows that marrying a daughter off with umpteen ceremonies starting from the wedding means a lot of expenses.

What she said so bluntly is actually a fact. No matter how much we deny it, for really poor folks it is an undeniable reality. A girl’s marriage is still horribly expensive and a girl’s parents are still bogged down by it.