Motherhood?

Over the years, I have seen quite a few couples arguing about who has it easier - a man or a woman. Both have their own views about the matter and there argument never ends.

Off late, I've realized that there is yet another angle to this story. Something a guy can only ever imagine but never really be a part of (unless he goes way out to make it happen). Motherhood! The actual experience of carrying a real living being inside your body for 9 months.

Off late, I've started wondering what it would feel like to feel those little movements within yourself - movements not controlled or made by you. Movements that keep reminding you that you are never really alone. There is someone with you who depends entirely on you. Someone who is created completely from you and yet completely separate from you. Someone living, someone who in about a year's time would have a distinct identity in our world, who would leave his or her mark wherever they go.

We, as men, can only be part of this life altering experience second hand. Maybe feel the movements by placing a gentle hand against our wives' womb. But we can never get that feeling of astonishment, glee, exhilaration, warmth and the bond of privacy that a mother can with her unborn child. It is something we can imagine, maybe yearn for but never achieve. Unless, as I've pointed out before, you go the way where maybe only one man has gone before (we read recently about a gay guy pregnant for the second time). And that is something which is open for speculation - as to how many men, given the opportunity would even want to think of doing something of that kind.

This post is dedicated to all those women who have or will give birth! I at least, think you're privileged.