20.Becoming a First time father

 In an  earlier  episode, I had  briefly  indicated how  my wedding was  fixed with a  third  cousin of mine on a Sunday  after a tasty  masala  dosa  in D Mess. The  wedding  was solemnised at Gruvayur  on 4^th Dec  1969 and we  returned  to my brother’s house in Palakkad after the  function  on a Saturday.  Tea  party  to my brother’s  friends  were scheduled   on Saturday and as I had only  one day’s  casual leave, I had  to return  to  college  by Monday morning. It was only during  the Xmas  holidays  we could go to our native  place and spend sometime  together. After  visiting our relatives  houses, we returned  to REC campus even  though  we could  not get a quarter  to live. We  stayed  in the  guest house for a few days and thanks  to a senior colleague  in  mechanical department, we could stay  in an F type quarters till  summer holidays as his wife  had  gone home  for her delivery. She was  taken  home  during  summer  vacation and  I was  shuttling  between  Alapuzha amd Kozhikode  as I had  only  one  month’s  vacation as  I joined  only in the  middle  of the academic year.  

As my wife was taking rest at our home during the summer holidays, the problem was how to find a place to live when the college reopens in June. Wife and child of the staff member who graciously allowed me to stay in his house was to come back after reopening.  I was on the lookout for another young ‘father-to-be’ so that I can move into his house. Fortunately, a few F type quarters fell vacant meanwhile and I was lucky enough to get one allotted in my name. So, first time after a year, I had an  official residence of my own in the campus. It was very near the house we were staying and with our Staff nurse Mrs. Gowri Poduval’s house. After purchasing essential furniture, we moved in without wasting any more time. 

Elders in our family insisted that the delivery must be in our native place as they did not want to leave the most important event to this ‘boy’ who did not know anything(?). But transportation facility in our place was not good enough. Our Alappuzha Changanassery road was in four  sections with three ferries in between. These were at Pallathuruthy, Nedumudy and Kidangara. Each one will take  minimum half an hour to cross. To reach Alappuzha  two ferries had to be crossed  and to reach Changanassery only one ferry to be crossed. We thought Kottayam was a better choice as we can reach Kottayam by boat comfortably even if it takes more time. Kottayam was more familiar to my wife too  as she was working in Rubber Board for a few months before marriage. Moreover, her cousin and husband (whose son married our  daughter  after several years) were  staying  nearby and promised to help us. There was a small maternity hospital near the old Rajmahal theatre run by two senior gynaecologist’s Dr Annie Joseph and her friend. Even though the nursing home was not too posh as per the present standards, the doctors were very good and experienced and used to take care of the patients admitted there like two elderly mothers. We had taken  my  wife there  for a check-up during the holidays and they said we can come over on full term.

So, in the middle of Sept 1970, we started to Kottayam by Malabar express and directly went to the nursing home. The doctors  advised us to go home and come back as early as possible with essential things. We reached Monkompu in a boat and returned to the hospital next day with a lady as helper and me on watch outside. Got her admitted and was waiting and waiting. As I had only 3-4 days leave as nothing was happening in these 4 days, I left for Calicut entrusting my father to take  care  outside. As her father and mother were teachers and could  not get leave, my father was free and volunteered to help. After another four days, one central minister died and we got a day’s holiday. I rushed to Kottayam and reached the nursing home around 530AM. Then my father   had just come back after praying in the temple and was planning to go to the post office  to send a telegram to me. My wife had given birth to a baby girl almost in the middle of the night.

Labor pains started by the evening on 29^th but child was not being delivered even after several hours of labor. Caesarean sections were not  very common on those days (like  nowadays), the gynecologists'  started heating up the forceps as they were thinking of using the forceps  to take the child out. As amniotic fluid was almost completely drained out and the  child may get a brain injury, they could not wait any longer. Anyway, by the time the forceps were got almost sterilized, our little princess came out without giving more trouble to herself and her mother. When I reached the nursing home in the early morning she was sleeping comfortably after her first feed and the customary course of honey and gold along with Ayurvedic medicine mixed together.  While sleeping, I remember even now, her upper lip was getting sucked inside as if she was  drying to suck  more  breast milk. In spite of the delay in delivery, everything was fine and we left the hospital on the 4^th day. And on the 28^th day, we named our micro-sized angel Mini, who  is now a  middle aged  lady with  two   kids 16 and 13 years  old, living in Boston , MA, USA.