2nd scan, week 21

i have this daft for a friend in india named sanjeev. he is a prime example of what a shallow reader is. he takes one single look at the subject heading [from my previous blog] and thinks monica has already delivered !!

so, he sends me a "congratulations mate" on yahoo IM™ and since i didn't know what for, i gleefully acknowledged it. he proceeded, "when" ? i thought he was enquiring when we knew the baby was a boy. i countered, "this morning, about 2 hours back". sanjeev comes back with, "oh good ! hope miaw and the baby are fine". do note, he always addresses monica as "miaw". albeit a bit aggravating, we have come to recognise the fact he cannot be changed.

i said, yeah, both monica and the baby are fine. i had not established anything atypical in the questions above. sanjeev continues, "when are you planning to bring monica and the baby back from the hospital"? NOW it hit me. nothing surprising, sanjeev is celebrated for things like this. he can read the first page of a book and conclude the whole story from that. he reads my previous blog [i mean the subject line alone] and assumes "wow, monica has delivered". he is just preposterous !!

i gave him a sucker punch, online ofcourse, and told him there are 21 more weeks before delivery. he said, "then how did you know the sex of the baby, saala"? saala in hindi translates to brother-in-law. if i had sisters who are of comparable age to sanjeev, i pledge to you, i would keep that a secret from him. the medical amenities in india are among the finest in the world, we have patients from the UK & Europe going abroad to india for treatment, surgeries etc. they have everything in india that they need to have in a clinic or a hospital, BUT ultrasound for the purpose of knowing the baby's sex is proscribed by the government of india. so you see, you won't know the sex of the baby in india up until birth !

there have been a decline in female births in india over the last decade and the government swiftly realised this is because of prospective parents, sadly, preferring to abort when they find the baby is a girl! so, across the board, every hostpital in india will use ultrasound & radio scans only for ascertaining basics about the baby - but not the sex. doctors lose their license to practice if they are caught doing so. hence, sanjeev could be let off for messing up this time.

we bought a juice maker. it is marvellous. monica gets her 5 portions of fruits sans vegetables these days. india finally managed to beat england, quite competently. batting could be a worry and needs more effort. last weekend was fantastic, weather wise ofcourse. try and envisage a HOT england in September - 30 degrees ! hmm ..

one single photo of the scan from 1st september [here].