By the dawn of 2016 I was heavily pregnant, and so was she. It was around new year that I first acknowledged her. I would’ve seen her multiple times prior, while running errands or when taking my walks. However, acknowledged her much later - when she too, heavily pregnant waddled her way through a dingy shop cum house to access the community toilet. It was her first pregnancy just like mine. I was taking all and every possible care of myself and the baby-to-be-born, eating right, taking walks, medications and what not. She, however, seemed oblivious..simply coz, in my opinion, her standing in the society as an illiterate, poor and dependent lady, did not empower her to be considerate towards herself.
Time passed and soon I started taking walks with my infant only to cross paths with her and her infant. As our kids grew, I started hunting for good pre-schools in nearby area and she became pregnant again. By the time my kid started pre-school she already had two in tow!
A working mom that I am, gave me the privilege to be extremely busy - juggling kid, work, home and life! I didn’t see much of her regularly but I did think of her everytime I passed her shop cum house. This pandemic added to my busy-ness and I completely forgot about her existence...until today. There she was, with her two kids and a third one on its way..
Both her kids wore soiled clothes, had runny noses, hadn’t had a bath in days at least and had no relation with literacy whatsoever. I wondered. Did she and her partner realise that they had bought 3 lives in this world who completely depend on them for a head-start? That, they have a larger play in their lives than just to feed and wash them?
It struck me that she doesn’t realise this. She’s both, incapable and incapacitated of this ability, by the same virtue as she was to be considerate of herself - illiterate, poor and dependent. This reflects the very fabric of the society she hails from, that over decades, in a way, upholds and perpetuates these virtues.
