Boys Shall Be Boys & Girls Shall Remain Girls - Interpretations When Shourya Was Born

"Another division in the Share of Wealth"; that is the first thing that I heard when the Doctor congratulated me on the birth of 'Shourya', our second son.

I was so excited then that I did not pay serious attention to the spoken words. As an after-thought I wondered as to why she would say so.

I decided that the next time I meet her I shall respond, "One more creator of wealth".
Before I could put my point across to the Doctor, the Paediatrician greeted me as I entered into his Chamber, "Second Time Lucky" , he said.

This was a shocker. I never expected Doctors to have a gender bias.
As more wishes poured in, there were many similar statements made.
From loved ones, from acquaintances and from some people who had no business to talk about it. I heard them all.
"Girls are Limited Liability.

Gone when married.

You need to give it all to the Boys" , said an uncle blessed with two sons.
As much I know them, they are the most obedient, disciplined, caring and loving sons. What then made him say so? "I now have a reason to work more, work harder. I need to build two empires" , Dad told mom when he arrived home late the other night.

He had just found another good reason for putting in more hours at work.

"That's two sixes in a row", said one cousin.
He was referring to our two sons. In cricket, a "Six" is the maximum number of runs that you can score in a one stroke.

What he meant was that we had made the most out of the two opportunities we got. It was not long before I realised that the gender of a child is still (in the Twenty First Century) subjected to so many different interpretations. All of the interpretations were related to Wealth, nothing that we have not heard of before. But what was surprising was the fact that the comments were made by Doctors, Lawyers and Industrialists, the well educated, suave professionals of the modern world.
These same professionals if asked in an isolated context would claim (and rightfully so) that they would never discriminate between a male child and a female child.
Yet, somewhere in the deepest level of the sub-conscious there is a preference, an opinion which can be seen from what was said.
It is also interesting to note that these statements were made to convey good wishes. The words were said when the person was in a positive, happy frame of mind. Hence, they would communicate the real thoughts of the person.
We were expecting to have a baby girl, when Purvi was pregnant the second time.

We prepared Maahir (our elder son) that he would have a sister. We would name her 'Mini'. But then God gave us the greatest gift 'Shourya'. "You didn't know whether it was Boy or a Girl when he was in Mom's Womb. You told me she would be Mini and he turned out to be Mickey".

These words can only be spoken by a three year old child when he sees his younger brother for the first time.

As much as we would all like to keep away from any gender bias, there are times and circumstances when we react quite the opposite, sometimes unknowingly. It could be that the Doctors who made the statements only conveyed the reactions they got from the parents, family members of new-borns they came across every day.
It's time that we change the way we think.
Our country (India) has always been known for discrimination between a male child and a female child.
And this discrimination shall continue until the little devil of thought hiding within us is dead. Jayesh Tekchandaney