siddharth, our second son, was born in january - on 20 january 2006 to be specific - at the same hospital as yudhi - mount elizabeth in singapore. he was born slightly premature - two weeks if i can recall correctly and both she and i were a bit worried - different fears in her heart and different ones in my head - when we saw his body covered in white grease-like substance. however, the doctor - suresh nair - the gentle, mild-mannered and soft-spoken suresh nair - reassured us that it was nothing to worry about. siddhu - we had already christened him. in fact we had chosen the names for two children even before they were born. if boy yudhishthir in hindi and yohei in japanese (although with some hesitation from my wife), if girl, rajshree in hindi and ogi in japanese. in the first instance it was a boy so we simply called him yudhishthir kei (you are right, her hesitation was intact!). second time we were sure it would be a girl till the day of the sex scan where we told dr ananda at campden medical centre that we didnt want to know the gender of the baby...but talkative as he is, he started ruffling his flowing hair with one had and chanting like a mantra "oh boy, oh boy, oh boy..." till my worried wife asked him, "is everything alright doctor?" he merely turned his bushy eyebrows heavenwards and smiled - "yes, dear". and added as an afterthought, "oh boy!" so we couldn't use the girl's name and ended up with the second name that we had thought of as a stand by - siddharth jun.
so even though siddhu was slightly premature, we were delighted to count all ten fingers and all ten toes (it's what my wife asked me to do when yudhi was born and i followed up on my own during siddhu's time).
dr suresh nair holding a cleaned-up and wrapped-up siddhu
although we had been preparing yudhi for a baby brother's arrival by talking to him and inviting him to have a feel of mama's tummy and by showing him every little pair of brothers or brother and sister around...the first look on his face when he saw his mama - so far only his mama - holding a strange looking little creature, who had somehow appeared suddenly from out of nowhere. he looked a little awkward, slightly unsure of the situation. but HE HAD bought presents for mama and his younger brother. moreover, he relaxed - ever so slightly - when he relaised that this new strange creature who was suckling on mama's bosom, had remembered him and had brought a nice gift for him too - a brand new, big box of bob the builder lego...the little gift from the new born, my wife and i believe, was a great bridge between any awkward emotions between yudhi and siddhu.
all was well, third morning, we got him circumcised and brought him home to yishun street 81 - where we were living in vas' flat at that time.
this is what yudhi looked like when siddhu was born
