Now times have changed, I think.

 But even about twenty years back, having a male heir to carry on their lineage was an obsession with us Indians.

 I hear stories from the older generation of how this obsession consumed some people.

 Take for example, this lady. She had a son soon after marriage. But he died in infancy. Then she had five daughters. Reminds you of the nursery rhyme, “Pretty maids all in a row.”

 When she had a baby boy after them, she was over joyed. But she panicked that according to her kismet, this boy too might die like the first-born.

 She decided to cheat FATE.

 She refused to breast feed the baby and brought in a wet nurse to suckle him. She hoped that providence would think that the baby-boy was the nurse’s child and not hers.

 Then when the boy was weaned from the nurse, she dressed up the kid in girl’s dresses.

 Why?

 Again to cheat FATE into thinking that this was a girl and let him live.

 That boy is a sixty years old man now and a well-known surgeon. He still laughs at himself, says that till he was six years old, he thought he was a girl!

 Another story similar to this:

Recently I was at an optician. The name before mine was Mangesh Sharma. When the name was called out, a lady stepped out. When the optician commented on her name she said that her name was Mangesh. Her older sister was Rajesh, while her little sister was Mukesh.

 Three girls with boys’ names!

 Her parents were eager to have a boy and thought that calling their girls by boy’s names might do the trick.

 Mrs. Mangesh Sharma, added ruefully that her parents produced no sons. Just three daughters with the names of boys they never had!!

 “And we three girls are saddled with names that has made us the butt of many jokes all our lives”

 “Parents should never do THIS to their kids,” said Mrs. Mangesh.

 I second that!

Story By: Gulsum Basheer@talkalittledo.

Photo Credit: Freedigitalphotos