I started out Sara’s with no expectation. But it touched me and how!
I, as a person, am on the constant lookout for stories I can relate to and that can inspire me. I could relate to Sara’s too. It brought about a lot of memories and also makes us think of the much debatable concept “abortion”.
There are 2 kinds of people, one who are pro-abortion and the ones who are against it or called pro-life.
I fall in the first category. 10 years ago on the operating table lying down for a c-section at 28 weeks of pregnancy, I told my obstetrician, “I’m not ready for this!” and she smiled and said, “Megha everyone should get a chance to live”. Once I saw my child’s face I decided, “now I’m not ready to give up on him ever!” I often think. If my doctor had told me what Siddique(obstetrician) told Anna Ben(protagonist), “It’s your body and only you get to decide when to have a baby”, maybe life would have been entirely different.
I’m thankful to my doctor who encouraged me to have the child, because my son is the best thing to happen to me and it is through him that I found the purpose of my life. There is no two ways that I love him the most in my life. But, maybe, just maybe, had I been told that I am more important than the child, or that I get to decide what to do with my pregnancy, life would’ve been much different than now. I can’t predict whether it will be good or bad, but it definitely would’ve been different.
Sara’s also opened my eyes to a very intimate detail of my life that I would like to share with you today. Just like Sara’s, in our life also one of us was very happy about the pregnancy and one was not. Here the roles were reversed. I was way too excited because this is what I had wanted all my life. Have a lot of kids. While my husband was terrified and just not ready. I have till date been irritated that my husband wasn’t ecstatic about our pregnancy. Sara’s helped me realize that it’s not just the woman, it’s a big change for the man involved too! He not reacting to the pregnancy news as I expected, was simply because he wasn’t ready and not because he hated the scenario!
Abortion for the right reasons can never be deemed wrong! An abortion helps a rape victim not see a face that would remind her of her rapist all life long. An abortion would help a teenager live her life and aspirations. An abortion might save a couple from a lot of miseries.
You are right when you debate that it’s not the child’s fault. But it’s not the fault of the rape victim either right?
I decided in a jiffy to go for a pre-term c-section, because I wanted my child. It’s what I’ve always wanted. But if my father was alive then and he would see his ambitious daughter quitting her job at the drop of a hat, it would hurt him. I did what I thought was right but why force someone to have a child when they don’t want it. You say the teenage girl should have thought of this before, but let me ask you, wasn’t this the guy’s fault too? When you say the girl can’t have an abortion, do you force the boy involved to look after her and their child all his life? Do you tell the rapist to take care of the victim and his child?
My husband just didn’t take the news of my pregnancy ecstatically, but from the moment my pregnancy went haywire, he has never left my side. But what if we had welcomed a child in the perfect scenario when both of us were ready and no obvious complications lay ahead? Don’t get me wrong, not even for a moment am I saying that we are not happy with our life, I’m just saying, “what if” we were given a choice to decide?
I got pregnant within 4 months of marriage because we were told our first child should be born soon, because according to our horoscopes, we are going to see bad times soon. Well, the astrologer was damn right, I don’t think our family has seen completely good times in peace. I’m not saying we didn’t have good times, but they all came with a clause! So the “bad times” were in store for us with or without a child for sure!
I am a believer that everything happens for good and for a reason. I have moved on from the phase of “why me?”, so I’m at a happy place today with the love of my life raising the fruit of our love. But this just happens to be what I had hoped for. What about a girl who is forced to be a mother just for the sake of satisfying the people around her? What about a girl who is forced to ignore her dignity and raise her rapist’s child just because the law says so?
I think it’s time we think about the mother more than the child. Be it post partum depression, be it abortion, it’s time we let women know “they” are more important than the child.
I commend the director Jude Anthony Joseph and the actors Anna Ben and Sunny Wayne for choosing a brilliant concept and portraying it beautifully!