A Mother at 51 — Cicle Health
Lalli Shantaram was only 18 when she got married to a man barely two years her senior. It was a typical arranged marriage in Jhabua, Madhya Pradesh, with as many as 200 people in attendance. Like is normal with most rural folk, they began asking her for a baby even before she completed a year of marriage. While she would initially shy away, facing the question became part and parcel of her life, for as long as three decades. And beyond a point, no one questioned. They taunted and reminded her she was “baanjh” ( infertile ). A Mother at 51 — Cicle Health While the first five years of her marriage were tough, it only got tougher with the passing of time owing to her inability to bear a child. When Lalli was about 26, her husband offered to adopt his elder brother’s son who was about seven years old then. Lalli, who had resigned to her fate, accepted the offer since it meant that she would have a child to call her own, and at the same time, she would have less advice and taunts coming her...