The Birth

(Kolkata, 2000)

The mother was in pain;
The unbearable yet exquisite agony
Of bringing a new soul into this world.
I stood by her side,
And saw the sweat breaking out on her forehead,
The agony with which she was thrashing from side to side,
Crying out,"Doctor, when will it all be over?"
I could only hold her hand, and say,
"Have patience, the time is near."

She was taken to the labour table
In preparation for the ordeal ahead;
Anxious faces all around-
Scurrying to welcome the newborn into this world.
"Push, harder, push," sister would say,
And with each wave of agony
The journey of a newborn was made.

The blood, the gore, the dreadful scene,
And in the middle of this all-
Out came the newborn
From the innocence of the warm womb
To the cold ruthlessness of this world.
It cried, it moved like a living doll;
And as I looked at it,
I felt I had created something
That money could not buy;
That all my education, my medical efforts
Perhaps pinnacled on this day
When I brought forth a living human being into this world.

It gurgled, it spluttered, it moved its arms-
The tiny bundle of joy
That had caused its mother so much pain.
Tiny pink hands and feet.
Skin that blanched when I touched it.
And the puckered face
Crying out in a constant wail
That asked for security, for love,
For respite from the harshness of life.

I took the tiny arms in mine,
And thought-
This wailing doll would grow up to be a man-
Would he be good, would he justify
All the pain that he had caused his mother?
Most certainly he would not know me-
The guiding hands that had brought him to this world.
Even so, I would not mind;
It was enough that I had brought one more soul
To this harsh, yet beautiful world of ours.

We tidied up the mother, and said,
"Smile, you have a beautiful baby boy."
And, even in spite of all she had been through
I saw the look of contentment on her face.
Who was more contented-
She, or I?
I was happy that one more soul
Had come into this world
And that it were my hands
That had guided him here.

Scientists would call this, "Just another work of nature",
Doctors would say, "Oh, it's just one more baby."
But I know that it was just not another baby-
For me, it was nothing but a miracle
Of life, in all its resplendent colours-
A miracle that had
Somehow made me more human.


-Dr. Abhimanyu Bishnu