The Three Angels we love the most

It was the sixth consecutive day and my wife was still in the Hospital. We were all very worried and tensed but my mother was more upset and nervous. She was continuously crying and also praying to Babaji for the safety of my wife and yet to be born baby.

We were already having two beautiful daughters and both were studying in school. Life was smooth and smiling till last year. We were very happy with our two daughters and always wanted to live with them but my mother, who was having three sons and no daughter herself, wished that at least I being the eldest son in the family must have one son.

It all started when my mother came from Calcutta to stay with us at Jamshedpur for a month. She started convincing my wife to make one more attempt and have one baby boy. In spite of her repeated attempts when my wife refused to accept her suggestion, she went to my in-laws place and forced my mother in-law to convince my wife to take one more chance for the sake of the family; after all only the son’s can keep the name of the forefather’s alive for generations and daughter’s are not our own; you feed them, bring them up and when they become young, you get them married into someone else’s family. It’s only a son who will stay with you and look-after you when you both will be very old.

After a month long marathon between the two families, we both finally decided to make one more attempt to have one more child.

All of sudden, a team of Doctors and nurses came rushing to my wife’s cabin and after ten minutes, I was called in by the CMO of the hospital and informed that it can’t be a normal delivery and my wife has to be operated. I must sign on the consent letter, so that the necessary arrangements can be made for the operation.

It was the biggest shock of my life as my earlier two daughters were born through normal deliveries but why now an operation. I was cursing myself, why; why I had accepted the proposal to have one more child, and today, I have brought my wife to the death-bed. I refused to sign the consent paper. Here, Doctors were of the opinion that due to low pulse rates and high blood pressure of my wife, both mother and child’s lives were in danger and I must give permission for the said operation.

Finally, with lots of arguments and counter arguments, we came to the consensus that operation must be performed and the lives of the mother and child saved at all cost.

Thirty minutes had passed since they took her inside the operation theater (OT) and all of a sudden, one nurse came out of the OT and took me inside the OT; The lady Doctor, who operated on my wife, showed me something in the stainless-steel tray and said, “due to double knot (life-cord) on the neck of the child, my wife had to be operated”. I was shivering in fear and was so scared that I could not even ask the Doctor about the health of the new-born. I simply enquired about my wife and the Doctor replied, “not to worry, both mother and the child are safe and healthy”.

I came out of the OT with a very heavy heart. My mother came rushing towards me and asked in weeping voice –“what happened?” I told her about the double Knot story, she interrupted and again asked, “is the new-born a boy or not?” I answered in a low voice, “I don’t know”. Then she rushed towards the sister, who again came out of the OT and the sister finally announced the arrival of a baby girl, in her loud and clear voice, so that everyone could hear her, once and for all.

After hearing about the birth of a girl child, my mother started crying as if someone had expired. Seeing her cry, lots of people came rushing to her and consoling her but she refused to listen to anyone and she rushed back to Calcutta same night, without meeting my wife and the new-born angel. She was very upset because her son had become the father of Three Daughters.

More than twenty years have passed since my third daughter was born; we have no regrets, we are very happy and proud parents of three very beautiful, charming, intelligent, smart and sincere daughters. They are the most wanted daughters in our lives as they are the proof of our existence, and we both pray to God Almighty that HE always bless our three angels whom we love the most.

With Prayers,

Gurcharan

You will only get what you deserve and not what you want in life

I was born in a Hindu-Sikh family in Calcutta where going to Gurudwara and Temple was a must; right from my childhood and I was having no choice either. During those days. I also developed my devotion towards Goddess Kali, Thakur Ram Krishna and God Shani Dev. When I was in College, I used to visit the Church, which was in the College campus. Later, when I joined my Sales profession, I started touring across the county and I used to visit Holy places including many Dargah and Mazars besides Ashram, Churches, Gurudwaras, Mosque and Temples, on a regular basis, all due to my childhood habits.

To my utmost surprise, at each Holy place, I used to communicate with my lord in my own mother tongue (Punjabi) and the prayers also used to be the same. I used to beg and the demands used to increase in quality and quantity day-after-day. If one demand of mine was met, I was ready with two more demands immediately, that too, without any hitch or hesitation, as if, putting my demands is my birth right and to fulfill those demands were HIS top most priority.

If my LORD seriously analyzed my demands, HE will not be surprised to know that all these demands came from different places of worship which included Ashram, Church, Dargah, Gurudwara, Mazar, Mosque and Temple, spread all over the country; and all the demands were similar and repetitive in nature, as if, someone was submitting photo copies of the said demands to HIM by many different channels, routes and sources.

When I became a husband and later a father, I used to ask my wife and children about the justification of each and every demand they used to make. And without listening to their justifications, I used to cancel their demands. And with their repeated requests and reasoning, I used to accept only those demands, which I used to think was right in my opinion, and their choice or preferences were not at all important, after all, it was my money and obviously the decision was also mine.

And if you ask me, what all they were demanding, movie tickets of their favourite film stars or a treat in good restaurant or visit to some hill station during holidays or new gadgets or new dresses with matching shoes, cosmetics and jewelries when someone in the relative or friend’s family got married. And last but not the least, humble request to increase the pocket money/allowance or a personal-conveyance (two/four wheeler) could be the maximum they could ask for.

I never used to honour their demands, not because I could not afford it but because I was of the opinion that it was sheer waste of money and we must not waste hard-earned money, just for the sake of fun.

Today, when I look back and evaluate my family members’ demands, it seems to me so genuine and authentic, but at that point in time I had not bothered to look into it. At that time, decision making power was in my hands and to be more honest, neither was I having any interest nor inclination to fulfill those demands.

But when I put forward my demands to my LORD, it automatically became genuine, in my opinion, justifiable and due since long. I wanted HIM to fulfill all my demands in totality and that too without asking any question or explanation.

And my LORD sitting in his chamber must have been smiling and laughing at my stupidity that in spite of all the knowledge, experience and maturity he gave me, in this life, I could not realize one thing even today that you will only get what you deserve and not what you want in life. Therefore, it’s more important to become deserving before demanding and the same is fulfilled by the nature automatically.

With Prayers

Gurcharan