The United Nations has estimated that up to 200 million females are “missing” today, most of whom would have lived in India and China. No, we’re not looking at such exceeding bounds of moderation here. We’re about a hundred years down the line and the progressive class is pretentiously gleeful to welcome a girl child today- though with a feeble fervor in jubilance, un-admittedly so.
The moderns may like to raise a brow here rejecting the patriarchal syllogism. But what shrouds beneath the perceptible gender parity is a simmering sense of unfulfilment in women not blessed with the A-grade progeny, a male child. While most families chin-up to a display of broad-mindedness upon the birth of a girl child, to me it seems more like a consolation performance for one another.
For men having a male child is passing on the lineage baton and the birth of a daughter short-circuits the ascendency chain link. While for the undutiful women [the clear undertone as it may be], it’s a passive censure with the scorecard of underperformance.
Ironically, we’re still not, deep inside, as unprejudiced as the present age calls for. Why is It still so unconvincing for me to give credence to the morally held out coequality between a male and a female child? Perhaps, there’s a persisting subtle awareness about an unprotested setback and the insincere zeal about being equally receptive to the idea of having a girl child.
“I love my daughter”, is a palpable emotion but a slow take- a feeling that evolves after the girl child is nestled in affection in flesh and blood beyond the pre-conceived concept of an ideal child sex. But for many of us at large, the farce is a self-centric mess.
While women take it upon themselves as a moral obligation to deliver a blue-chip offspring [Jokes apart-A Male Child!] and to consolidate their position within the family fold, men yen their replica in a male child, an heir to their amassed fortune and fame, a human vehicle for the legacy portage, and the one to commemorate “the me”.
So, let me put it this way- it’s not about unconditionally loving a child to be, devoid of a sense of obligation for a daughter and a discerning expectation from a son. It is once again about loving ourselves!