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Motherhood is considered the greatest experience a woman has, even compared to godliness. An expectant woman is pampered, with every step being observed. But has anyone spared a thought for fatherhood? Has anybody from among us ever pondered what a father-to-be goes through? There is no fuss to be made about it, we are tempted to exclaim. This book focuses on the much-neglected aspect of fatherhood and the changes it brings about in a man’s life. Right from the day a man comes to know that a little one is going to enter his life to the moment he first holds the newborn in his arms, this book has vividly presented it all. It is a diary-style personal account of a father-to-be and the author has been careful not to omit minor details lest the flow in the narrative is hindered. The way life takes a new turn and the manner in which a man takes it have been included as "a father could also have emotional outbursts and was under pressure too during the months of pregnancy". The initial euphoria, the subsequent family’s reactions, the wife’s mood swings and the irrational precautions have all found their pride of place in the book. The small adjustments made to make the wife feel comfortable and the minor sacrifices to maintain harmony at home, which come as a part of the package, have all been dealt with. The author has been candid enough to admit failure in reasoning out at home, as happens in "most arguments you have with your wife". Making preparations for the latest entrant to the family entails extra responsibility, along with incurring additional expenditure. The author has laid emphasis on the economics of fatherhood, though not fully without reason. After all, bringing up a child does exert pressure on finances and the better a person is prepared in a money-driven world, the better equipped is he to meet the demands of parenthood. Quite understandably, his main concern throughout appears to be managing within the means. Men are generally not associated with patience and tolerance, but the period covered here initiates them into lessons in these virtues. Paying visits to the doctor and playing second fiddle, driving carefully on roads which have got scant respect earlier and giving a hearing to the pearls of wisdom that the mother and the mother-in-law offer are characteristics that develop during this period. Taking the wife for shopping becomes a duty to be performed diligently, ignoring the "very manly trait to only look for things when they are needed". Touching at times and
humorous at others, the book encompasses varied emotions, experiences
and alterations in a man’s life in those 40 eventful weeks. Though
nothing more than light reading, it provides "a ringside view of
the emotional travails of an uninitiated father in the land of
fatherhood". After all the trials and tribulations a man goes
through, the bliss and ecstasy of holding his baby in his arms, that are
beyond compare, totally eclipse all events preceding it in those testing
times.
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