Those sleepless nights all your friends
had foretold, had warned - have arrived
so soon, so suddenly.
You post a status photo saying
my cute angel or lion prince
my bundle of joy.
Lots of lost well wishers call
bevy of friends line-up with gifts
including baby-oil and cash.
You tactfully find reasons to escape
the trauma the mom-baby combo undergo
during the initial weeks.
Sanitisers, cough syrup bottles, vitamin drops,
indigenous magic potions and lots of
free advice embrace you.
You can stop feeling bad when
kid cricketers down the lane shout -
uncle, go that way.
Near and dear ones keep asking
whens the party? and you confidently
keep saying - very soon.
Among many other things you took
for granted, you truly realise what
it means by - privacy.
Travel, cinemas, CCD, dinners, friends' place,
shopping, gym, farewells, in general outing,
all get messy over-night.
You acknowledge the fleeting lives of
toys, baby clothing, glassware, and surely
the recently bought iphone.
Vaccination, immunisation, constipation, consultation, injection, indigestion,
and of course frustration, become additions
to your stagnant vocabulary.
You frequently encounter and you start
mechanically answering curious, innocuous items like -
whats the birth weight?
Diapers, medicines, toys, specialist doctor fees,
school donation and summer camps make
your nights more sleepless.
Plenty of thumb-rules eagerly greet you
morning-born babies won't sleep at nights
dad-like girls bring luck.
Quickly you realise sleep deprivation was
not as bad as you thought
but yes, you hallucinate.
You start justifying lethargy, missed calls,
laziness, indulgence, splurging and party proxies
quickly with baby blues.
Distantly-related, long forgotten, single, old ladies
grab your attention, you tell them -
please join our home.
You try solving the numerology jig-saw
with permutations starting with Shui, Khru
and ending with .aijh
Sleep, food, water, leisure and time
you presumed to be your birthright
start laughing at you.
Your Indian family tight-rope walk show
gets tighter, one more entry to
the fragile, active ecosystem.
People congratulate you on becoming a
proud dad, down under you wonder
what's going to happen.
But after a hard day's labour
you sit back, feel plain happy
- my baby, my love.
