If there is one moment in my life that still gives me gooseflesh, it is the time when I held a positive pregnancy test in my hand. My life had been quite normal until then. I got a great job in Pune when I was about 24. I worked for a while and then like most girls at that age, my family wanted me to get married. I was not really the rebellious kind. I wanted a family of my own. I always dreamt of the perfect wedding with the man of my dreams. So, I readily moved to Bhuvaneshwar to stay closer to my family. The marriage proposals started coming but it was one particular one sent by a friend that caught my attention. I spoke to the guy and he seemed quite nice. I went on to meet him and his family. From the first time I spoke to him, I knew that it something special; simply perfect and meant to be. That is how Nikhil and I met. We went ahead and tied the knot in 2011. Getting married was not as easy as I thought it would be. One has to make some big changes in life. For me, the biggest challenge was quitting my great job at Infosys to move to Delhi with my husband. And, let’s face it, job hunting is never fun.

For almost two months, I stayed home. I sent out one resume after another and was honestly getting frustrated. But I have a wonderful and supportive husband who always told me that things would fall into place. And, they did. I got a job at Fidelity and thereon, my life was just one big party. My husband and I loved to enjoy together, eat out, travel, and have fun together. Before we knew it, two years passed and our love for one another kept growing. We reached a point when our desire to start a family of our own became very strong. It had to be well planned as we did not want any surprises. There was a trip to Leh Ladakh that both of us wanted to take before the baby came along for, it would not be possible for many years after having the baby. So we planned and were really excited about it. Well, as it turned out, we were not the best at planning perhaps because we became pregnant right before the trip, in June 2013. After missing my period, I thought I should check, just in case. I bought a Prega news kit, India's No.1 Pregnancy Detection Card from Mankind Pharmaceuticals. The first time that I tested it, I saw a light purple line. It appeared more like a “maybe” situation. So, I thought I would wait it out for a week and try again. I asked Nikhil to buy a Prega News Kit on his way home from work. I remember that it was really late by the time he got home and since the test is best taken early in the morning for accurate results, I decided to wait until the next day. But, that night, strangely, I could not sleep a wink. I was super anxious. It was during the wee-hours that I fell asleep and woke up again at 6 a.m, realizing it was time to check. I remember holding onto the stick like it was some life saving device, as I watched the lines change color one after the other. And there it was! The purple line! Dark and prominent, telling me this time for sure...we were going to have a baby! I rushed out to tell Nikhil and found that he was not in bed. Just as I was about to look for him, he walked in through the door, wearing an anxious expression on his face. He mirrored my feelings of a little while ago. But now I knew the results and so, I went up to him, showed him the kit and told him, “I’m pregnant”. His face lit up and he hugged me tight. We held each other and suddenly the tears started rolling. We cried together, so many happy tears. We confirmed it with our doctor and received a due date around early March, the following year. My pregnancy was a blast. Nikhil and my family made sure that I had the best time. I went out, ate the best food, worked a little, and stayed happy all the time. I was my husband’s princess and he went to all lengths to spoil me during the pregnancy. Of course, there are roadblocks in every story and ours wasn’t without them either. Just when everything was going well, I discovered that there was some water towards the right side of our baby’s brain. I remember reading furiously about this until I had ample information on the situation.

Every time I wondered, “Will my baby be ok?” It scared me but all the research I did showed that this was quite normal and chances were that we were having a boy as this problem commonly surfaced in boys. We got all the tests done and finally the doctors said that we would be just fine. It was 12 March and at 6 am, my water broke. I went into labor shortly after and was rushed to the hospital. We had to opt for a C-section as the baby was very big and it would be hard to have a natural delivery. Nikhil still wishes that he could have witnessed the drama of childbirth. He jokes that he did not get to see me yell and create a fuss. In less than an hour and a half, at 7:24 a.m, we were blessed with a beautiful baby boy. What a miracle it was…a miracle we had created together, a miracle that would go on to change our lives forever. I knew then that my normal life would never be the same again. It was going to be more exciting than ever before. Especially with a man like Nikhil by my side, I knew that raising this baby was going be the most wonderful experience of my life and his too.

null