Since last April or so, we have been hearing so much about the state of pregnancy of her highness Aiswharya Rai, the Bachan bahu, as she is popularly known as. Prior to that, there were speculations about her not getting pregnant; one imaginative journalist, even went as far to, attribute that to her state of health and the Big B protested vehemently through twitter. Media got annoyed about her not showing her baby bump. (It is another matter, if she did that often, they would have said that she is showing off her baby bump). Media made out her outings (which rarely happened) into an event. Not to talk about the number of astrologers who predicted the sex of the baby and so on. So much was talked about the pregnancy of this former miss world!
I thought, for a change, I will write about the pregnancy of Radha, a construction worker. I know this would not make hot news. But somebody should chronicle this for the sake of it. Radha got married to Murugan last year without much sound and furry. In her village in Theni district, every woman (read girl) gets married sometimes when they are 16 to 18 years of age and her parents did not defy the rule. In no time, they left to their honeymoon destination- to Chennai-, where Murugan works as a construction worker. They have an individual shack, thanks to the contractor. He sometimes thinks of the ‘welfare of the worker’. If they were made to live in the outskirts of the city, money should be spent on transport as well; and they may not reach the worksite early. Radha joined the workforce on day one without a proper call letter, interview or an appointment order.
Marriage brought out big changes in the life of Murugan. Now he does not have to think of carrying water from the tap and standing in a long queue for that; nor does he have to cook or look for cheap eat outs. Above all, somebody is there to make love at night.
Radha got used to the city’s ways in no time. Now she is comfortable with the filthy language that is used near the water tap and the fights while fetching water. Even she does not mind using such language now. Domestic chores are nothing new to her; but making love was. Radha got pregnant. Radha was ‘lucky’ and she could continue with her work as the construction work did not demand a perfect figure; but only the ability to lift and carry bricks and concrete mixture. Nothing much changed in Radha’s life; except that the other women allowed her to fill water without waiting in the queue; they sometimes prepared some food for her and also helped her while she was at work so that she got some rest. Radha worked till the week before her delivery.
Meanwhile, Murugan was running from pillar to post to make some extra money so that he could take care of her delivery. However, he was happy about her pregnancy like any other man of his class. He was a bit worried about her health as the doctor told him, in the previous visit, that she was weak and needed more attention. It wasn’t that she was on a diet or something; just insufficient nutritious food. He had to rush to the village to bring her mother to Chennai. Radha was supposed to go to her maternal home for delivery, especially when this was her first child. But they were too poor to take care of her. They are still paying off the loan they took for her marriage. And in Chennai the government maternity hospital is close by to their worksite in Egmore. Somebody should be there with Radha in the hospital when he runs around to arrange things. The hospital has had many incidents of child theft. He did not tell about this to Radha as it might scare her. But he was sure that some older women should have told her about the reputation of the hospital. But private hospitals were unaffordable to the couple. So Murugan was clear that somebody should be there with her till they come back home.
Radha delivered a baby girl today without knowing the significance of the day 11-11-2011. And nobody was particularly happy; it was, after all, a baby girl. I am putting this story in my blog as there were no takers for the story in the mainstream media; as it does not invoke any specific interest in the readers. Hence no news value!
