When my aunt had a daughter, everyone smiled. Everyone's wishes had a silence that screamed it were a boy.
When the second one was a daughter too, there was a gasping silence across the closeted room, like someone had committed a crime.
The air reeked of murmurs that disapproved of the sinful act. The desire for a son became forever aloud after that.
Don’t worry, this one will be a son- the concern had a hidden warning. "If it isn’t, you are done."
The desperation to have a son can push one to have five daughters in a row. And how these walking, talking beings are reminded that they are a rejected lot.
How everyone’s words mourn their presence, how even before these beings grow up, everyone thinks of marrying them off, as if they are to be discarded as soon as possible.
By now, even they know how even their unwanted existence needs a validation from a kid bearing a peg.
So they pray for God to miraculously bless a conception that has a Y chromosome. And thankfully, it's a baby boy this time.
But they don't know how they'd be put up to the task of catering to his needs- Five full-time babysitters to validate his every act.
And this lad grows chauvinistic day by day. Why shouldn't he? So that, one day when girls ask him, "Ghar mein maa-behen nai hai?" after being cat-called-
He can always say, "bahut hai."