Kitne bacche hain? How many kids?

Our founder, Ishita, recently struck up a conversation with the driver of a rickshaw she was in. Somehow, the conversation came around to children.

“Aapke bacchein hain? (Do you have any children?)” she asked him.

Happily, he responded, “Haan, do bacchein hain humare. (Yes, I have 2 children.)”

“Oh, dono ladkiyan, ya ek ladka aur ek ladki? (Oh, are both of them girls, or do you have one boy and one girl?)”

“Dono hain. Do ladke aur do ladkiyan. (I have girls and boys. 2 boys and 2 girls.)”

It was at this point that Ishita was thoroughly confused. “Bhaiyya, aap abhi bolein ki aapke do bacchein hain. 2 ladke aur 2 ladkiyan matlab 4 bacchein hue na! (You just said that you have two children. 2 boys and 2 girls makes 4 children, right!)”

His very casually delivered response: “Bete toh do hi hain na, woh hi aage hamari dekh-bhaal karenge. (I have two boys after all. They’re the ones that take care of us in the future.)”

Cut to the MukkaMaar team meeting, where Ishita is narrating this story to us. At this point we are literally the living embodiment of the *shocked* emoji. She continues the story…

“Aap aise kyun bol rahe hain? Ladkiyon ko apne bacchein jaise kyun nahin maante aap? (Why do you say this? Why don’t you consider your girls as your own children?)”

“Ladkiyan toh baad mein shaadi karke ghar se bahar jaati hain. (Girls eventually marry and leave home.)” he says.

Then he goes on to monologuing about why he has 2 boys.

“Humare ilaaqe mein, jin logon ke paas ek hi ladka hai na, woh poora bighda hua rehta hai. Raat mein ghoomte rehte hain aur ladkiyon ke saath yahan-wahan jaate hain. Maa-baap unse kucch bhi bolein, toh ghar se bhaagne ki dhamki dete hain, apni jaan lene ki dhamki dete hain. Woh iklauta beta gaya toh maa-baap ki kaun dekhega? Isliye humare paas do ladkein hain; aise humein dhamki deke woh gandi harkatein nahin kar sakte.

(Everyone in our area that has only one son, ends up with a very spoiled son. These boys roam around for endless hours, and that too with girls. If their parents try to reprimand them, they threaten to either run away from home or commit suicide. Now if the one son is gone, who’s going to take care of the parents? That’s why I have two boys, so neither of them can get away with behaviour like this.)”

By now our whole team is laughing at this man’s crazy logic. After the laughter died down, it hit us. What’s so incredulously funny and illogical to us, is a perfectly reasonable explanation to him. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is no laughing matter.

Firstly, why the idea that your daughters aren’t your own children? You clearly made them. They are scientifically a part of you and your partner.

Secondly, why are your sons the only ones capable of ‘taking care’ of you? You already expect a woman to cook, clean and manage the house for you. Who’re you to say that she isn’t capable of going out into the world and earning for herself and her family?

The female gender has so much untapped potential, all because we allow ourselves to be dazzled by humanitarian mediocrity for the sake of so-called biological superiority.

Let’s change that narrative, shall we?