Oh Baby Girl

Baby Sukhie

Yes, this is a line that is oft heard by many girls as they traipse through the streets of Manhattan. But I'm talking about something different, very different.

While men, often homeless men, are appreciative of the female entity, I cannot say the same for some Indians. Although it is 2011, it still seems crippling to me that people can still get upset when they are carrying or have given birth to a baby girl. My family has been recently "blessed" with many baby boys but when a girl is born it can sometimes be a major disappointment. Even certain holidays and celebrations, like Lodhi, are in the honor of the male-kind. Where is the love for my fellow sisterhood? And why in such modern times is it still a stigma?

In a recent trip to Baltimore, where most of my family lives, I think I may have found the culprit of this idiotic ideology. While talking to my uncle he was mentioning how one of his Punjabi friends was deciding between getting his daughter married off (via arranged marriage) or letting her pursue her academic career (and the girl had a full scholarship)! I was baffled and truly astonished, WTF is wrong with people?

Marriage is what's up. Marriage is the pinnacle of life for backward-minded people, while for me it's achieving personal success, if in that process I find someone to marry that would be great, but it's definitely not my number one focus. My uncle went on to state how he is worried about the future of his daughter and how it would ease his stresses if he could marry her off when she's 19. Mind you, the girl is eight and she was watching Hannah Montana during this conversation.

Although my grandmother may have cried when I was born (not tears of joy but rather in disappointment that I wasn't a boy), I'm happy to say that my parents have never placed marital pressures on me. But maybe I'm being too critical since most of the people who have those ideologies grew up in rural Punjab, where the more men the better, who doesn't love free labor? But I don't think it is fair to carry those same ideas when moving to a new country. This is the land of opportunity and the land can be cultivated by both men and women.

Left-my sister
Right-me