This week was filled with many firsts and a” hope-I never-see-this-again” experience…
A first – Pregnant Moms are not allowed to know the sex of the baby. For that matter, no one in the family is allowed to know the sex of the baby. It is considered bad luck. The parents have to sign a form that says they agree to the fact that the doctor will not reveal the sex of the baby when they go to get their first ultrasound. This has to do with preventing female infanticide – the killing of girl babies or the aborting of female fetuses because of the social stigma it places on the family if they do not have a son. Future blog entry.
A first – There are NO baby showers. I have a cute story about this. I was at a friend’s child’s birthday party where there were way too many adults and not enough children. But the children made up for the lack of their kind by screaming out their nursery rhymes and repeatedly reciting their ABC’s that I will never forget the alphabet ever again. So I was telling a pregnant friend and another friend that back home (America), once the sex of the baby was revealed, the parents would start to buy things needed for the baby to be comfortable. And the girlfriends of the pregnant mom would have a baby shower.
The not-pregnant friend promptly replies that it would be so cute and that she had seen it once. I was very encouraged by this and she continued to say, all the babies looked so cute lined up and ready to be given a shower and the maids were the ones who would bathe the babies and not the mothers….I was so surprised to hear that they actually did that in India and then realized that they had never seen a baby shower (the one where the bathing of the baby is not involved) or knew what it was… After recovering from that statement (very quickly and non-visibly, I might add), I proceeded to tell them what a baby shower was all about. They thought it was a grand idea!!
A first – There are NO bridal showers. After I heard that there were no baby showers, I asked if they had bridal showers. Thank goodness I had waited to explain what a baby shower was before I asked them this question…or they most certainly would have had all their doubts about America being a liberal country confirmed…imagine having all the brides lined up to be given a shower!!!!
I then realized they didn’t need one – they had dowry – A gift of money or valuables that the family of the bride gives to the family of the bridegroom at the time of marriage. This seriously includes everything that a couple would need to start out their lives together and several things that only the bridegroom will use like a new motorcycle or a car, sometimes a new job, etc… (all this is provided by the bride who should be thankful that the man had married her when his options were so many). Another future blog entry.
A first – Citibank in India will charge you 100 Rupees to withdraw cash from your own account inside a Branch. You are supposed to withdraw money from an ATM instead to avoid paying a fee for service. I rarely carried cash in the US and here you get a special discount if you pay in cash, so I have to carry it around all the time. 🙁
A hope-I-never-see this-again experience: Brace yourselves….
I was traveling in an auto rickshaw along a very busy 🙂 and traffic-filled 🙂 road…when I happened to glance at some movement on the sidewalk just as I reached the intersection. There on the sidewalk was an ancient-looking, weather-beaten old man who was naked from his waist down squatting and relieving himself in full view of the traffic!!!!
What made me glance at him was him swinging his hands in front of himself trying to swat the flies that pestered him while he publicly defecated the sidewalk. I was aghast at the sudden visual of prehistoric privates facing the public in broad daylight at an intersection in the city!!!!
I quickly turned away, my mind flooded with questions – Did he forget where his bathroom was? Where were his pants? How would he wash himself since there was not one water- holding container to be found around him? Was he more frustrated with the flies than he was about embarrassing himself in public? What was most curious is that NO ONE WAS BOTHERED BY IT!!!
