Maya, after all

13th February, 2008

It’s a girl! I ran shouting to my mom and dad through the hospital corridor. It was just what I had wanted.

The nurse, an old woman, walked out of the labor room and declared to us that the grandson was born at 9.54 pm. Then the doctor comes out and declares that the girl child and mother are fine. We got a bit mixed up then. There was tension that someone else’s baby may have gotten mixed up and what if we got the wrong baby? What if it was not Maya?

Then we got to know that there was only one delivery happening that night in the hospital. So there was no chance of anything like that happening.

The day we realized that we were going to have a baby, this was sometime in May, I willed the baby to be a girl and my wife to be a boy. I just wanted a girl child named Maya, as if it would be born clutchng a placard reading - annoouncing "Maya".

This wish for a girl child named Maya was born during my first love, reiterated by my second love and just solidified by the third. The solidification was just a longing for a girl child named Maya after I got married. I had secretly looked for a personification of all the good and the not so good I have loved in the 4 women.

I had always expected a dark child, with skin as dark, or rather, as brown as me. To see a pink baby was in itself a shock for me. It was a big baby when born, at 3.6 kg. I didn’t take it in my arms when they gave it to me. Maya was literally pink. One slight mewl or simper threw her face into the brightest red. I was afraid I would hurt her.

23rd February, 2008

I was with my wife and kid till they were discharged. Then I went back to work and didn’t get to meet them for 10 days. And today, Maya is already grown. She is a lot thinner, has darkened out a little bit. Is sharp towards sound and light. This time I couldn’t get enough of her. I wouldn’t let her go out of my arms. I was jealous when my brother in law gave her fond kisses.

I am really angry when people tell me I cant name her Maya. A name according to many has to be derived from the baby’s star sign. Maya was born under the star Bharani – I can name her with the starting syllables Le, Lu, Lo, Li, A, E or U. Now where do I fit the Maya in? Maya doesn’t start with the letter “L”. When I told my mother in law what I had in my mind – naming her Maya and balls to astrology – I got a very scary warning. Her son was named Vinoth – they never thought about astrology or numerology in those days. So he is still not too good at mathematics, has never been very bright or has he been successful in his career, has been divorced, etc. All his life has been ill luck and sorrow. I know that his ill luck has been attributed to the vastu of the house, the position of the borewell at various points in time. But the fact that there is a such a hypothesis is scary to any young father. So much for education, so much for aptitude and such bull. I decided to give the whole thing a figuring over a drink.

I have thought about Angamaya, Aghamaya, Unnatamaya, a hundred other names which fit in Maya as I had conceived my child and have the blessings of the astrological science. Now my people don’t like anything like that. What seems to be fad now is names like Anisha, Alisha, Lekha, Lalitha. Names sported by a hundred people, named by a hundred parents named Rahul, Reshma and Rasagolla.

Laya is a Christian name according to my mother in law. Subhiksha super market is a wonderful name for a girl – father in law. Lathika is a wonderful name – wify. Oh why doesn’t anyone want to name her Maya, the essence of spirituality and Hindu philosophy?

I will bulldoze my wife and her family into naming her Maya. Of course, there can’t be a beautiful girl named anything other than Maya.

2nd May, 2008

We named her Maya, after all! Cheers!!!

How does Maya Vinod Sriramulu sound?