This is a story that has probably made it's way into your gossip pages. If it hasn't, be assured that it is true and happened to someone who knows someone I know..... that sort of thing but 100 % true nonetheless.
This gentlemen retired and shifted to his dream home on the outskirts of Jodhpur, my darling home-town. His swanky farm-house cum home was on the highway and that route has a lot of villagers and gypsies from remote areas tramping about. In our culture we usually share our baby cradles with extended family and friends when they need one for their children. It is considered lucky to have your baby sleep in an heirloom cradle that has had healthy children grow out of it. Now this particular gentlemen's heirloom family cradle had become mildly infested with termites. There is a reason why Jodhpur is called Sun-City, need anything dried and deadened keep it out in the sun. Because he didn't want his cradle soaking with chemicals he left it in his front-yard hoping the sun would drive the termites away.
Well, the next morning he went out to bring the cradle back in if the termites were gone. Imagine his surprise when he found a barely swaddled new born baby girl in his cradle !!! Abandoned just like that . In his fence-less front yard, in an easily accessible and convenient cradle. The gentleman was obviously flummoxed, what was he supposed to do with this baby who didn't look more than a few days old. His mother refused to dispatch the child to the orphanage because she had ended up in the cradle in which all the children of their family had slept in. She was not a stranger anymore. The family decided to first try to find the parents through the police and eventually find her a new home and family if that didn't work out. Meanwhile the cradle was standing forgotten in their backyard.
Now imagine their shock and confusion when the next morning saw another little girl squealing in that cradle. The two girls were now being taken care of by the women in the family while this gentleman decided to let the cradle stay outside just of sheer,morbid curiosity. How many girls would end up with him ????
By the end of that week - 4 female infants
By the end of that year - 1 5 0 female infants.
So, had it not been for his publicly placed piece of furniture these girls would have reincarnated within a week of their undesirable lives ! Why not place such cradles, through a government initiative in every village and town that has disparate sex ratios and where sex-selective abortion and female infanticide are known to be rampant ?
Who wants to bet that if Aamir Khan made a public appeal endorsing these cradles our annual statistics for could-have- been daughters will decline by 50 %.This is what I believe without a trace of any practical pessimism .I mean look at the man in the story above. A little baby ended up in his cot almost every alternate day !!!
What happened to him ?
Of course it is stupid to believe he has that many girls running around in his retirement pad. He ended up raising funds and started a shelter home for these girls which I fail to visit every time I am down there for some reason. He runs that shelter and is making sure girls get their basic education and vocational training. That's the least he thinks he can do. After all, they became the daughters of his family thanks to a horde of termites.
Satyamev Jayate indeed ......
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