‘When Will There Be Good News?’

In the recent past, there have been so many books on motherhood—memoirs and biographies included—detailing the process of motherhood and the ambivalence women have about motherhood and mothering; all these made you ask several questions. All tinged with guilt. Among several things you remember from early on in your marriage is your mother-in-law telling you that a woman is born to be a mother. She spoke persuasively, in her smooth Hindi, about how motherhood is the epitome of a woman’s life, and you tried your best to understand. In other words, motherhood defined a married woman.

Nevertheless, you were confused. It seemed to you that one married simply to become a mother, leaving no time—for the most part—to be a wife. And, thinking this way wasn’t considered old-fashioned. You remember films of a certain period, and not from too long ago, when a married woman was always someone’s mother or someone’s daughter-in-law; for instance, “Ramu-Shamu ki ma” or “bahurani.”