Dear Baby B
Should I call you Beti B? Or is that a right that only your father Abhishek and dada Amitabh enjoy?
Anyhow, I’d like to welcome you to the world. You are almost a week old now, but I am sure that you aren’t yet aware of the fact that you have been born into the ‘royal family’ of Indian film industry and that your Pa and his Pa have held a press conference to announce your birth. Do realize that in a country which is teeming with people, a press conference to announce a baby’s birth isn’t a usual thing.
No child, even a film star’s kid, has got so much media attention like you have in this country. The country has literally followed every move ever since the time they got to know that you are inside your mother’s womb. Even though your mother has been out of job for some time and your father hasn’t delivered a hit (leave alone a blockbuster) in a long time, your arrival to this world has been almost given ‘a princess being born
to king and queen’ sort of status.
What is heartening to see is that the nation has never ever been so overjoyed at the arrival of a girl. A society which still suffers from archetypical
beta syndrome, your arrival has made many forget that having a girl child is not the most pleasant thing. I shall hope that your birth sets an example in several Indian household who sulk when their first child is a girl.
You, I hear took a while to come out and even though your mom was offered to deliver you by C-section, she chose to do it the ‘right way’ as your
dada puts it, and had a normal delivery. Your mother has surely inspired several women who keep worrying that their biological clock is ticking and rush into having babies before they are even ready for it.
You also have inspired several babies across the world by trending on Internet ever since your father and net savvy
dadaji broke the news to the world. Even though they urged us the media
walas to stay away from you and your mom as much as possible, they thought sharing the news on world wide web was not encroaching their privacy and they were just merely spreading the joyful news with their (and now yours) extended family. We, media
walas did feel weird initially but then your
dadaji kept thanking us for giving you and the
parivaar ‘space’ so we forgot and celebrated as much as we were allowed to.
We would like you to be India’s answer to Suri Curise and Harper Seven Beckham. In the near future, your every move, every dress, every appearance might be scrutinized because we love your family and that’s what we have been doing with your mother for a long time.
We probably will try to cut a deal with your parents for exclusive pictures of yours, but going by the way we have been sternly told to ‘behave’ in the past, we don’t think the answer from your parents will be in the affirmative. But like stubborn kids, we shall still try, as usual. We hear that our
firang friends are also trying to strike a deal with your parents and we surely hope that they are turned down too.
This was just a friendly introductory mail. Hope to follow you very soon! Do keep us posted. Or you could tell your Grandpa, he would do the needful.
Till then, take care and lots of love
Us, the media
walas
(The views expressed by the author are personal)