A New Year and A New Life

The preacher had a unusual job that of giving sermons to prisoners who were facing death sentences. Today he found himself at a altogether different place. A nursing home, place where new lives are brought to this world. And his eyes fell upon Preetham, who was sitting in the waiting lounge hoping for the doctor to bring some good news at the earliest. The impatient look on Preetham's face made it clear that his wife Seema was in the labor room being attended to by doctors and nurses.

The preacher got an unusual desire all of a sudden to give the young man a sermon on creation. All his life he had been talking only about the greatest leveler - Death. Now he wanted to talk about the basic truths of creation. But he knew that Preetham wouldn't welcome a stranger like him and that too at this juncture. So he decided to use a intermediary. The preacher knew a mystic way whereby he would transfer the knowledge to a intermediary who is close to Preetham and the intermediary would in turn preach Preetham. For this role, the preacher zeroed in on Manya and all the knowledge he wanted her to possess was transferred through a mental FTP (File Transfer Protocol). But the preacher never expected a small girl like Riya to be a distraction in his discharge of this duty.

The eerie silence in the waiting lounge was broken by Manya who spoke as if she was possessed by some spirit of an Acharya from the Gurukul, " Vats (Son)! Why are you so tensed up! Whatever it is and however it is, you need to accept it as God's Gift. It could be a boy or a girl, it could be dark complexioned or a fair one, you need to accept it! Therefore I feel you are simply troubling yourself...."
Preetham looked at his junior Manya and came to the conclusion that she was again going out of her mind.
But Manya needed to impart upon him the new found wisdom, "Out of a millions of sperms that get released, only one gets a chance to see the light of the day. Only one grows as a baby in a woman's womb....."
Preetham just tried to wake her up thinking she was again hallucinating, "This is not your biology classroom nor is this your laboratory! Wake up! You are in a nursing home...."

But the young Riya had her own questions, "But who nurtures this fetus in a mother's womb? Who places those beautiful eyes? Who puts that tiny nose on the center? Who lays down those sweet lips? Who shapes those little ears? Who completes this contract of creation in her womb and that too within a period of nine months?"
Manya gave away a type of divine smile and pointed the finger upwards, " Its him....! He breaks one cell into 46 chromosomes. These chromosomes are further broken down into thousands of genes. He allots each gene a unique function depending upon the prototype he has in mind..." and then turns towards Preetham and says, "When he has created, he also knows to protect. You are just simply worrying too much...."
Preetham just tried to ignore her. But she came up with a good example, "Remember after the Mahabharatha war, when Ashwathama used that weapon of mass destruction Brahma-Shir Ashtr against Uttara's (Arjuna's daughter in law) womb with the intention of destroying the only left heir that was growing in her womb, who protected it? Lord Krishna himself with his Sudarshan Chakra. He protected it till it came to this world."
Preetham was really amazed by her knowledge, "You seem to have taken a crash course in Mythology..."

Riya's mind was working and she distracted Manya's focus, "Creation and Protection parts are Okay! But why does elders desire for a baby. They spend the first twelve months teaching these babies to walk and talk and the next twelve months telling them to sit down and shut up. If such is the case, why do they desire for babies? What it brings to them?"
Manya answered it very poetically, "A baby will make love stronger, days shorter, nights longer, bankroll smaller, home happier, cloths shabbier, the past forgotten and the future worth living for...***"
When Riya started pondering over this statement, Manya prepared to bring calm to her boss Preetham...

But Riya quickly bounced back with another question, " But this new born baby... is more attached to its mother in the initial years. Why is it so?"
Manya again picked up some more knowledge from her thoughts, "The attachment of child and the mother begins in the womb itself, young girl! A five months fetus is able to recognize his or her mother's voice. As soon as a child is born, he/ she can recognize the mother's smell.. You understood!"
Preetham's mother commented on this new found knowledge of Manya, "It seems everybody these days knows about babies except the people who have them...."

Before Manya could really get another chance to chat with her boss, the doctor came out of the chamber with a baby in his hand and announced, "Its a baby girl!"
Riya saw the cute looking baby and innocently declared, "I am seeing a zero year old baby for the first time in my life."
Manya looked at the baby girl and like a very aged woman started lecturing, "Daughters are precious gifts placed in our arms by the heavens above. They fill our homes with love, beauty and grace..." Preetham wanted to use a tranquilizer and silence her. But she just continued, "She will be your inspiration for the rest of your life. She will be your Prerana..."
Preetham smiled, "You may sound like a psycho... but the name you have given sounds very cute....Prerana"
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Wishing all of my readers a Happy and Prosperous New Year.
This is the 25th episode in Preetham - Seema Series.


*** Anonymous Quote.