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The Three A's

on August 27, 2020

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My Pregnancy Journey and Labor of Love

When we saw the two pink lines, we were ecstatic. Our life was about to change for good. We were expecting our little bundle of joy. When I heard his heartbeat for the first time, I felt it to be the best song of my life. However, the happiness was short spaned. I had bleeding in week 6, immediately went to see the doctor. The doctor explained that this might be a case of threatened abortion. The ultrasound was suggestive of subchorionic haematoma and advised bed rest to me. Then at the week 12 scan, I was detected with low lying placenta, so the bed rest period got extended. In the week 20 scan, the placenta had migrated upwards. Also, I was diagnosed with a fibroid during the pregnancy, and it was growing in size. Though it was outside the uterine cavity, it was very near to the cervical opening. The doctor had asked me to be careful and avoid exercises except walking. Then, in week 34, I got mild contractions in week 34 with threatened preterm and was again advised for complete bed ...

Matrubhoomi Matrubhasha ra Mamata

Incident 1: Shifted to a new house. My neighbor asked me: Kahan se ho aap? Me: Odisha. She: Kolkata k pass hai kya ye jagah? Incident 2: Joined a new project. When my colleague heard me talking to my father over the phone, he asked – Are you speaking in Odisha? Incident 3: Boarded a cab for the airport. Driver : Kahan se ho madam aap? Me: Odisha. He : Odisha.. wahan sab kaisa hai.. kabhi news naam ata nahi hai utna. The list goes on. My heart aches, my soul pains whenever someone asks me such questions – What is Odisha? A state? Ye Jagannath Puri ka naam suna hai bas. Odisha, Bhubaneswar mein hai kya? Kahan hai Odisha ? Bangal k pass ? Is Odia language the same as Bengali? Bengali cuisine toh suna hai, Odia walon ka same hi hoga. Kuch alag hai kya tum logon ka? etc.. etc.. Now I have a few questions for my fellow Odias: Where have we failed our motherland? Why are we not able to create an identity for ourselves? Why are we been always marked as ‘tag along’ with Bengal? Why is our...

What's Your Name?

That evening she was attending a puja, a Hindu post-marriage ritual. The priest asked her: What is your name, and gotra? She immediately replied: Lakshmi Devi, so and so gotra. One of the relatives interrupted her and said: You are now married. Your name has changed, so as your gotra. She just stood there without uttering a word. While her brain was processing her 'new' name, few thoughts came to her mind. All the documents have her name as 'Lakshmi Devi.’ How can a marriage change her name, her identity? She has not changed her name officially, but why does she need to take a different name for the rituals? She thought to herself, isn’t it weird? I have been called by a particular name, and now it’s just changed, just like the snap of Thano’s fingers. There is a story behind every name. She also has a story, she is the only daughter of her family, and her grandmother had given her the name ‘Lakshmi’ as she got them good fortune. Her name is a sign of a cel...

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The Three A's

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