TIMING IS EVERYTHING!

It is absurd how we pretend that we have absolute control over everything in life. Ever so often, we get kicked in the shins and land flat on our butts; we gather up the remnants of our pride and pretend that we were practicing free-falling for fun!

Roomie I and had been married four years before we decided to have our first baby. These were wonderfully idyllic years, filled with professional ambitions, strategically planned career moves, impulsive holiday getaways and wonderful weekends spent exploring the city and each other. During these four years we learnt to cohabit, co-exist and even concede an argument willingly. We closed our eyes at each other’s follies, prioritized preferences and slowly emerged as each others better half!

Four years of fun and frolic also caused a great deal of consternation to our mutual families' and perhaps they were all baffled about our "childless" status. After the first year, the subtle hints for grandchildren began. Every time we visited our parents' we had to detect and deflect the sarcasm that amused as well as annoyed us in equal measure. To truly understand the stigma of not procreating early, one must be born an Indian. After the stipulated "respectable" period of concessions,(which is usually assumed to be a year at best) everyone from the scullery maid to the local grocery vendor starts worrying about what transpires behind our closed bedroom doors! At one point, roomie and I had nightmares about people surreptitiously watching all our moves and taking notes!! It would not have surprised us in the least if we'd received pamphlets titled, "What to do and what not to do!"

We were in no hurry though and after four fine years, we succumbed to the inevitable. By then, I was primed and excited, roomie was eager and willing and the rest of the family was nauseous with anxiety. In hindsight, I will always hail this as the best decision ever made. All my maternity hormones apart, in an unidentifiable manner, my pregnancy gave me a new perspective in life. In essence, I lost some of my unnecessary bluster, gained pounds as well as wisdom and realized very early on that "I" would always be tagged with "US". I was most certainly "Tamed by a Heartbeat"!

I loved everything about my pregnancy. The anticipation and the frenzy that it generated within the family will ring a bell with many first-time expectant mom's. Everyone had opinions and they were unabashed to share them. Ranging from concern to coercion, I often had more than my share of advise and I suspect that I gained quite a few extra pounds just from the counsel that I received.

Ah, but I do not begrudge them their concerns now. Assuming the mantel of parenthood, makes you realize that you wear your heart on your sleeve, as far as your child is concerned. If need be, you'd try and change the course of the earth's trajectory, if it would steady and ease your child's pain or discomfort. Well, my first born, Ved, arrived in the summer of 2007...all 8 pounds and 15 ounces of perfection! As friends and family rejoiced and roomie regained his stature on the performance scoreboard, my world readily shrank within the confines of the Operating Room (I had a C-section.) My myopic gaze rested on the little screaming body, wrapped in warm hospital blankets and my first thought was, "My son...my baby...Oh wow!"

Timing is most certainly everything...an early pregnancy, perhaps, would have felt rushed and made us feel out of sorts. When Ved arrived, it felt just right...like it was always meant to be. Perfect timing, I would call it.