OS- Birthday Gift!
Today is his first birthday after we've gotten married. He had been celebrating this day as his birthday for the last thirty of his forty two years. When Baba adopted him, he had acquired a date of birth along with a father. Baba even showed me his first birthday gifts to Ashutosh. A bicycle that still remains parked in our garage and a skating board that lies at the bottom of our closet. Ashutosh told me that he wanted his son or daughter to learn cycling on that very bike. I wanted to bawl my eyes out when I saw the pride and joy in his eyes even as he recalled his first gifts. Inside my charming and sophisticated surgeon husband was a twelve year old boy, who could still not believe that someone would love him enough to want to celebrate his birthday with gifts. And here I was, the little girl who never had to wait for her birthday for the gifts of her choice.
What should I gift such a man? Material things were of no consequence to him and I had already gifted him my heart and soul. What more did I have to give him? I'd been going crazy the last few days thinking about it. I had some money saved up from my internship. I was a smart cookie, never dipping into my own savings before. My father had indulged me in the past and my dear husband now had the privilege. This time though, I wanted to spend my own money. Not because of what he had said to me the other day. If husbands and wives started taking things said in anger too seriously, then no marriage would last its term! However, you don't gift somebody things bought out of their own hard labour. The idea and the effort has to originate from you. So, I'd bought him new clothes, a brand new watch, an expensive after shave and a best seller he had wanted to read! None of this seemed personal enough, good enough! I wanted this birthday to be unforgettable. It was the first of the many birthdays that we were to celebrate together. I wanted to do something that he would cherish for the rest of his life. But, all that I had put together seemed rather inconsequential.
We had a mini celebration in our bedroom at midnight. I'd even organized a cake. He wanted to know if we should not keep the celebration to the next morning or evening, when the family would be with us. I told him that I had a rather private celebration in mind. At the stroke of the hour, I grabbed him and kissed him hard on the mouth. Although surprised, he did not fail to respond with great enthusiasm. He would have preferred to take it further but I told him that he had to cut the cake. He wondered if I had now developed a midnight hunger for cake rather than noodles. I made him cut the cake while I sang along and then. he sweetly fed me a piece. I took a bite and fed him a bit in return, before proceeding to smash it on his face. He was taken aback and I realized that he had never had that done to him in all these years. There is always a first time for everything though! I clicked pictures of him with cake smeared on his face, telling him that I wanted to put them up on the bulletin board of KGH. No one would ever call him Dr Heart stone ever thereon! He smiled sportingly and moved towards the washroom. I stopped him and said he was trying to spoil my private celebration. He wanted to know if he should not get the cake off his face. I told that he should but I wanted to be the one to get it off. I then proceeded to show him imaginative ways of wiping off the cream. For a novice, he caught on pretty soon and made even more creative use of the leftover cake thereafter. I don't think I can ever look at a cake the same way again!
In the morning, Baba gave him a book as a gift. We both gifted Baba a smartphone and then took his blessing together. Ashutosh looked at me questioningly and I sheepishly brought out my gifts for him. He appeared very happy and even changed into one of the shirts and wore the watch on his wrist. He bent down and whispered into my ear that he would thank me in private for the lovely gifts. I blushed and smiled back, still feeling a sense of incompleteness.
Now, he has gone off to the hospital. We had both taken the day off and were planning to go to an orphanage that Baba and he support! He got called on an emergency though and had to rush off. He knew the children at the orphanage would be waiting for their sweets and new clothes though. So he asked Baba and me to go ahead without him, promising to join us there.
Baba and I proceed to the orphanage. We are delighted to witness the children's happiness as they try on their new clothes and relish the sweets. Their appreciation makes me feel humbled for these are things that I had always taken for granted. In them, I sense something of Ashutosh's childhood and feel incredibly proud of my husband for turning out to be the man he is. I also feel proud of Baba for making that difference to the life of a deprived child.
We are taken around the orphanage. We step into the nursery, where the infants and the toddlers are housed. As I walk around, I suddenly find somebody getting hold of my feet. I turn around in surprise to see a little baby trying to raise itself up by grabbing my legs. It is a little girl not more than ten months in age! She is rather frail but appears determined! She has a surprisingly strong grip, not letting go of my legs. She manages to pull herself up and looks up at me, as if expecting me to applaud her achievement. I bend down to lift her and look into her big, brown eyes. She looks back at me intently, a serious expression on her face and her brows furrowed in concentration. It is like she is trying to read in my eyes as to who I am. I smile at her and after a pause she smiles back rather sweetly and lays her head on my shoulder. I don't know why but I feel the prick of tears at the back of my eyes. I feel a strange sense of pride at her acceptance!
The caretaker informs us that she was found abandoned in a garbage bin outside the orphanage. My heart bleeds when I hear this and I feel a murderous rage at her unknown parents. How could anyone do this to a helpless infant? She is clearly a victim of the strange prejudice in our society. A society that worships women as Goddesses and yet kills them in the womb or abandons them at birth. Baba senses my restlessness and placed a calming hand on my back. I acknowledge his gesture but cannot bring myself to speak.
The caretaker offers to take her from me. I feel a strange reluctance to let her go but am told it is time for her to have her meal. I volunteer to feed her myself. I spoon porridge into her little rosebud mouth, even as she tries to evade the approaching spoon. She makes such a face that I can't stop myself from tasting the porridge. There is hardly any sugar in it. The little mite clearly has well developed taste buds. I ask for some more sugar to be added. When I try to feed her now, she happily accepts. With every spoonful that she takes, it seems like my heart is a little fuller.
She finishes her meal and happily crawls away to play. I look at her with pride before I sense that I am being watched too. I look up to see Ashutosh at the doorway, watching me with a strange expression on his face. He opens his mouth as if to say something and then closes it.
It is time for us to leave. Baba and Ashutosh take leave of the caretaker but I find myself being drawn to the little girl again. I pick her up and hug her to myself. Her little arms go around my neck and I feel the wetness of her lips on my neck. I don't know why, I don't know how but I know right then that this is what I want.
I go up to Ashutosh and tell him,
" I know it is your birthday and I know you should be the one to receive birthday gifts. Can I make an exception and ask you for one today?"
Ashutosh looks deep into my eyes even as he nods.
"Can she be the first of our children please?"
His expression is a strange mixture of joy, peace and pride. He nods at me and takes both of us into his arms. The caretaker and Baba are silent and yet happy witnesses to the birth of a new family right in front of them!
Epilogue ' Nishi was three years old when her little brother Pranav came along...their mother gave birth to him the day her post graduate results were out...she had topped her batch this time!
Geet - Hui Sabse Parayee
Advocate Anjali Awasthi
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