“You’re EXPECTING?” Granny asked Mum, darting a quick look in my direction to check if I had heard her surprised reaction. As a bursting-with-curiosity thirteen year old, of course, I had caught what she had said.
Seated at our dining-cum-study table just a few feet away from Granny and Mum in the tiny room that served as our living room by day and bedroom by night, I had been engrossed in my homework. But now my mind was no longer on my studies. How could it be? When things were on an even keel in my little world, Mum’s revelation had shattered the peace like a tornado.
“So when is the baby due?” Granny asked Mum, a wan smile taking the edge off the concern reflected in her eyes.
“In May,” answered Mum, briefly looking up from her task of making hemming marks on one of the dresses I had outgrown. She was altering the frock to fit my younger, ten-year-old sister, Vera. Third in the pecking order was my six year old brother, Gladwyn.
And soon, there was going to be a fourth child!
I kept up the pretence of studying till Granny left, surreptitiously stealing glances at her and Mum every few minutes. Ears cocked to one side, I followed their hushed conversation while feelings of disbelief, confusion and resentment welled up inside me, almost choking me.
Our modest two-room accommodation was cramped for sure, but despite its limitations, it was a place we were happy in. And now, a new brother or sister was going to disturb the established order of things? I squeezed my eyes shut in disgust. We barely had enough floor space to accommodate the five of us at night. Where was the room for one more sibling? I was so furious I couldn’t concentrate on anything else that day.
But a few months later when I held my newly born sibling, Cynthia, in my arms, I did a complete 180-degree turn! Utterly smitten by the cherubic new entrant into our family, I helped Mum bathe her, whip up her cereal for her, and feed her. I even changed her diapers. Not just that, almost every week I brought a few school friends home so I could show off my cute baby sister to them.
Now, decades later, I can see that while it was smooth going with Cynthia from the start, things were different with Vera. I was just three when she was born and I guess I had looked on her as a bothersome competitor.
Excerpted from Full House… Full of Love from the anthology – Chicken Soup for the Indian Soul: Celebrating Brothers & Sisters
