This is the land of Mother India. Since when did pregnancy demand a tell-and-fuss book?
Ever since air-brushed pregnancy books showing beatific moms became the norm. It was time to talk about the gory details.
For centuries the pregnant Indian woman produced a brood without needing a book.
Because she had at least six siblings...an extended family...efficient mother and mother-in-law, and didn’t have to worry about work-life balance.
What is the high of being pregnant?
Finding the real you. And yes, it is a high that you are a fertile statistic.
And the lows?
The fact that it is irreversible; that there will always be someone to factor in, and that your spontaneity has come down several notches.
Amma said, ‘You’ll know when you become a mother’. What exactly did you get to know?
To be stoic when woken up at six am and ask to be read a story....
When did this shift to focus on a woman’s body during pregnancy begin?
When women decided to focus on themselves, reclaim their lives.....
Celebrity pregnancies, yoga, designer togs—What’s with being pregnant in a big city?
In reality it is all an escape from how really alienating pregnancy is in a big city.
What’s the collective secret that women don’t let out about pregnancy?
That they all had a terrible time.
What have men got to do with it all?
They are limited to being sperm donors, and make good family pictures.
Flaunting a pregnant belly on the cover page of your book. What gives?
What’s with the coyness? After a dozen people have seen your vagina in the hospital and many have seen your boobs as you nurse clumsily in inappropriate places, flaunting my 37-week pregnant belly on the cover of my own book was a no-brainer. Besides, it has pulling power.