Let’s make babies

“When I’m gone, I want to leave behind something other than my children.”

This is one of the many beautiful words of wisdom that my partner keeps showering on me.

I find many people wishing the same in their lives, but by the time they are 40/50 years of age, they would have forgotten all about their life-vision that once used to burn bright in them. And this particular memory loss happens especially with women in Asian countries. Even in the current generation, despite our education, awareness and global connectivity, many women tend to lose the purpose of their lives. In fact, they forget when they got distracted and forgot all about even finding a purpose.

I find that one of the greatest reasons for this is bringing up a child. I am not a mother yet but I wonder a lot about – when and how many children I’m going to bring up. Every time I’m in that mode, I try to go deep into the passive understanding of what being a parent is. I collate observation of my own parents and life-stories of my friends.

Asian societies – especially India, tend to measure success & failure according to the conventional life chart. So, when we are in our prime and discovering all the amazing things in the world and in our personalities, we are frequently bothered with questions like :

‘Do you have a job yet?’

‘When are you getting married?’

‘Are you doing any future planning?’ (meaning kids)

Even the best of us sometimes are unable to ignore the pressure of the society and succumb to it. Of course, the answers to these questions could be quite rewarding too. However, coming back to the agenda of this post, when we decide to have children, life seems to take a 180 degree turn and we see a new horizon in front of us.

Nurturing a child is our first experience with being absolutely selfless. Caring for a growing life while ignoring our own wishes, wants and needs is an extraordinary experience. But when we encounter that feeling for the first time with an offspring, we unknowingly give up on our goal to witness selflessness outside of it.

Let’s forget procreation for a second and just think of creation.

“That product is my baby!”

“That painting is my baby!”

“That idea is my baby!”

Many of us never get to say this and this is the opportunity all of us must have – To be able to deliver a baby that’s not a human offspring. We can still leave behind our children for humanity. But our child could be our hard work, our idea or our masterpiece.

I am not saying that we shouldn’t procreate when we want but we must not forget that we can make non-human siblings for our children to play with.

Let’s inspire the future by building it in whatever way we can!