As soon as I realised that I was pregnant the first thing that came to my mind was how to make best use of this. However, I soon realised that I wasn't going to get any extra allowances after all. For one, when it came to household chores and other such non-complementary works, I anyway enjoyed exemption even before I got pregnant.

I thought may be I'll just sleep in late and blame it on morning sickness (not that I ever got up before 7.30 am) but that wasn't going to happen. My mom-in-law asked me, as I got up at 8 and came down, ( coz our room is upstairs) ''Have you been sleeping all this while?'' ''No,'' I replied, ''I have been throwing up.'' Well, she did not comment but as I saw all others up and about I must admit, I felt a strange sense of shame. I mean I was the 'bahu' after all and cannot expect to be treated like a guest always.

As for my husband, he is the kind that always pretended to care and continued to do so. I always threw tantrums and my husband almost never reacted. So why?, I asked myself, did I get pregnant? Not that I don't want to have baby but thinking about forever- urinating, drooling baby did repulse me sometimes I must admit. Leave alone the horrors of child bearing!

I mean it's fun when the baby belongs to someone else and you just play for while and promptly hand it over to the mothers when it starts bawling but who will I transfer it to when it's my own? ''Mothers come in handy during these times, when my daughter started bawling I always refered her to my mother,'' said a cousin of mine smiling. Well, it all actually comes down to this right? mothers! bless their souls! And I am going to become one! not that bad I guess...