As I came out of the school bus, wearing my brand new black shoes(2 size bigger) I felt like a queen. All my friends were jealous of me. Nobody in school had the same shoes. We bought the shoes last, and manged to get the latest one. I was proud and beaming. As I walked home, looking at my shoes all the time, I could feel there was something wrong. Crowds of people were talking excitedly. Womenfolks were standing together and discussing. Even the Ammachis(grandmothers) who couldn’t walk without assistance,were outside holding on to their children’s hand and talking animatedly. To me it felt that they were talking about me new shoes. But it didn’t make any sense. I got scared and I ran towards home as fast as my legs could carry me. As I reached my home,Akkachi and Maria were standing outside the gate and talking to Jolly Aunty and her mother in law.
“What is going on I asked Akkachi?”
“Chatti gave birth this morning”.
I know Chatti, she always sit on the collectorate bus stand and beg for money. I don’t know her real name. Everyone calls her Chatti, because she is physically disabled. she has no legs and sit on a small plank with home made wheels. Chatti wears slippers on her hands and use the them to push herself on her make shift wheel chair.
“But Chatti is not married!” I spoke
“ofcourse she is not.Who would marry a women with no legs?” Maria spoke
“Then how did she get preganant?”
“Go inside, you nincompoop, you haven’t hatched completely out of your own egg and you want to know about Chakki’s preganancy” Maria yelled
Jolly aunty made the ptu ptu sound and spoke”little girls shouldn’t listen to adult conversation”
I dragged my school bag inside. I very much wanted to know more about Chakki’s preganancy.
I banged the door shut. I was jealous of Maria. ‘Why does she have to be 8 years older than me’?
I wanted to know more and I climbed on the dining table and peeped through the transom on the window. I could see everyone talking. But I couldn’t hear. Then I remembered I am half deaf. I climbed down.
That evening when my father came from work Amma was waiting for him. As soon as he entered the hosue she asked
” Have you been anywhere near that Chatti’s house?”
I was doing my home work sitting at the dining table and wondered’What is wrong with my mother, why does she asks my father, if he has been to Chatti’s house, My father works near the post office, on the other side of town, as though she doesn’t know.’
Appa shook his head and said “no”
“You are sure?”. Someone said the baby is very fair !”Amma said
Appa saw the confused look on my face
“Keep quiet, you shouldn’t talk like that in front of the kids”.
Amma shrugged her head and walked off.
I went to the kitchen to tell Akkachi to get my father’s tea ready.
“Akkachi how are babies born?” I asked her
“When it is time to give birth, they go to the hospital and give birth”
“How does the baby come out?”
“Come here Nina, I will show you”
I went to her. Akkachi lifted my blouse and pointed the brown line that extends all the way from my belly button to the bottom of my tummy.
“This is the special zipper, only us women have it. When it is time to give birth, the doctor will open the zip and the baby will come out”
I looked at the zip on my tummy and asked
“where is that ‘thingy’ that you have to pull to open the zip?”
“it is hiding inside your belly button, Dr’s have special equipments to bring it out”.
“Oh!” I was so happy to finally learn how babies come out and took very good care of the zip and my belly button.
Daughters of Tomorrow
Yeah girls have special zippers.
Its so funny I do not remember ever having the conversation where do babies come from?
hmmm…me not so mature yet to comment on that…me still a kid…lot of questions yet to get answered…may be I will ask my wife…when I marry? LOL…but how can I marry now? I am still a KID…LOL
hehe.. very funny.. but did anything happen betweeh parents afterwards?….
Thanu: For the record,I believed the zipper part to be true till i went to medical college!
Q8techdrive:muttennu virinjilla…pinneya..aha
Sujit:most households near our home hd the same scenario..athey ningal aa chattinte veettinte athilekkode enganum poyirunno??
Must have been a shock in Med school.
prof: To day we will be learning abt female Anatomy
Nina raises hand
Prof: Nina you have a question?
Nina: Will you show us where the zipper is?
Prof is all confused
Nina: Never Mind
Say to self, when they show me the cadaver I’ll search for it myself. Maybe even he doesn’t know about the zipper.
That was cute. I remember asking what the belly button was for.
C’mon your mom really asked your dad that? I cant blv that! Really?
You dad didnt get mad at that? I cant even imagine asking that question to my husband even jokingly. Your mom was joking?
Haha. Lol
such innocence!!!
cool…that’s a new kind of explanation.now I can use this for the little boys and girls when they enquire.
I kinda did have a similar idea of such things until I entered medical college..Even there I was totally dumb struck n so confused…I was a total nut!these days kids know everything.I learn stuff from my younger sister…who is ten years younger…. whole different generation at that.But I value the innocent childhood given to me..It was just so PURE
oh yeah…and I was happy to hear about the brand new shoes :))
oops …. But Amma told me she got me in exchange of thavidu
Hi Sarah, back to blogging, atleast partly. Been really busy at work. Hence no new posts in a long time.
ooops
when i was young i “knew” that babies comes out from stomach of women..the Dr have to do a special surgery for that..
and also i “knew” that women gets pregnant when they holds the hands of their hubby at the time of mariage ceremony..and they can decide how many kids they want at the time of marriage ceremony.
the funny thing is that i used to explain this to my friends :))
that was a nice explanation…
great to know Nina got brand new shoes and felt like a queen. three chears to Akkachi..
thats a new one, will remeber that for my kids 🙂
Thanu:absolutely true.. My whole world of innocence and knowledge came tumbling down during the anatomy lesson..
Starry nights:I took good care of my belly button. I was so scared to clean it..incase I accidentally opened my zipper and u know the rest!!!
Lg:She was pretty serious and my dad was mad at her..perhaps he saw the confusion on our faces and wanted to cool the situation
Ajay:thanks
Maya;I tried the same explanation to my daughter.. cheettipoyi..”that is called caesserian mama” She is going to be 8.
Dew drops:I was barter traded at the market for 1 kg of rice!
Quills:missed you in blogosphere. Glad to have you back.
Monu:that would have been nice..to hold hands and get preganant..how innocent we were all!!!
Arjun:I got LEATHER shoes( actually amma wanted to buy the cheapo plastic one..but the store didn’t hv any!!!)
Smiley: the same explantion is n’t working now.. I tried tht to my kids..kids know way too much that I knew even wehen i was in my 20’s
The same thing happened near our house to a mentally deranged girl. She delivered a fair baby and later it was found out that it was a northie army jawan. The the tug of war started with people trying to adopt the baby because it was fair. The girls siblings finally decided to take care of the baby themselves. They moved out so I do not know how the baby is now.
hee hee hee that was funny.your little girl has a lot of knowledge
Thanks so much. I was so touched to see your message on my blog. :)It may be some time before I write any new posts, but I plan to read and comment as often as possible.