The first and the much needed smile for that day was brought in by the doctor with a joke that he cracked… he narrated an incident as to how just the previous day one father-to-be pestered him to help his wife deliver the same day and not let the delivery spill onto next day (the 2nd of Oct)… a genuine reason he had… being a hard-core goan catholic, he was terrified to have a kid born on 2nd Oct… and couldn’t imagine celebrating his kids birthday (or celebrating anything for that matter) on a dry day… also that his kid would never forgive him for such a blunder… and lucky that he was, the child was born pretty much a few minutes before midnight… doctor was greeted with a huge hug and a bottle of wine :-))

Brought a smile on me for the first time that day… it had otherwise been very painful and tiring day till then (as painful as labor is meant to be)… the smile did help ease my nerves and in next few minutes, spewed out another life from within me… in the form of a tiny little girl… it was sheer delight to see my bundle of mass turn into a crying restless figure and gradually soothing down to a calm and composed thing with all possible innocence and serenity built up on her face… at that very moment, my womb felt blessed…

Later as I lay in my room next to a huge window, overlooking the vast expanse of sea… next to me was this part of me, sleeping peacefully… while time was ticking away and the world around moved at its harried pace, my life seemed to have paused in that moment to take this new soul into its fold… I kept gazing at her for a long time, at times shifting glances to the unruffled sea and starry sky outside… seemed as if the galaxy of stars was all there to greet her… their reflection on her supple face made her look like an angel… an angel descended down from among the stars to light up our lives… inspired, we call her ‘Niharika’, meaning ‘constellation of stars’…