Originally posted by: sashashyam
My dear Tejaswini,
Thank you very much for that remarkably candid and emotional message. I was touched by it, and I felt bad, and wished I had not reacted so sharply earlier. I too am very sorry for having sounded so abrupt; I am normally never so, as anyone in this forum can testify, but something in the tone of your last post set me off, I do not know why.
Perhaps it was because I have seen, in the course of 38 years of professional life in several countries, so many desperately disadvantaged kids, on the streets and elsewhere, struggle hard and make it, with minimal support and very little recognition and appreciation. I have tried to do my little bit to help some of them, but it makes me weep to see how little support they get. On the other hand, it nowadays seems to be the fashion to 'understand' spoilt rich kids who cosh old people for fun, drug addicts, alcoholics and otherwise dysfunctional characters, and a great deal of sympathy and empathy is lavished on them, and efforts are made to 'reform' them.
Ovi seems to me to embody a milder variant of this, a poor little rich girl archetype, and so I find it very difficult to dredge up any sympathy for her. As I wrote earlier, it is not just the baby, it is her invariably contemptuous attitude to the less well placed in life, and this when she has nothing by way of real achievement to her credit, other than standing around in fine(?) clothes made by others. Maybe I am old fashioned and out of date, but I value good manners, and honest effort, and some compassion in a person's makeup.
But none of this had or has anything to do with you, or the very real troubles that you have faced in your own life. You were emotionally handicapped, and so I can understand your reacting the way you did, and I am very, very happy for you that everything turned out so well in the end.
Ovi is not in the same situation as you were, and a lot of her troubles are of her own making or of those who love her to excess. Nonetheless, I do hope we have a happy ending in PR in 2 months, with the kind of scenario I have described in my message to Kalapi: one huge happy family grouping and two healthy, chubby babies and their happy moms.
I am sure your new baby, when it arrives, will be as much of a joy to you both as your older son. Take care, my dear, and God bless. I am surely much older than you are, so blessings would be entirely in order!😉
Shyamala B.Cowsik