Sketchstory No. 33 - 'The Born' by Ishita Dutta

She picked up the crying baby. The people of this house didn't come to her room without much fuss. They didn't pick up the baby even if they heard her crying. They were scared that their impurities might contaminate the divine body. They had stopped calling her by her name. When she came down the stairs, they would move and make way for her. The beloved daughter-in-law suddenly turned into an object of reverence. She tried to protest but the mother-in-law folded her hands into a gesture of prayer, " Please let us do our penance, we did not realize who you are". 

It all started when she felt the baby in her womb. She remembered the day. She had suddenly looked at her husband and said, ”I might be pregnant”. He smiled with his eyes "How do you know? " She said, "It feels like it". The doctor declared that she really was two months pregnant. It was the count of month that brought some whispers in the family. For her husband got leave from the army and arrived exactly one month twenty nine days earlier. Does it happen that fast? The mother-in-law said " Doctors can't be always accurate about the count." The whispers carried on…. that she often went to the field all by herself during the dusk, that she was found walking around the small temple near the paddy field, that she often was found sitting with her eyes closed, tears streaming down her cheeks. Then one day the Guruji of the family appeared. He looked at her like he did whenever he visited, and laughed, "So my girl, you are caught." He whispered in the ears of the older lady who burst into tears, " The Divine is coming to us!” 

She remained silent when they made a fuss over her before and after the baby was born. Her husband had asked her, " Is she really Divine?"

Now looking at her two older children curled up in the bed, she murmured fondly, " Aren't they all?"

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