Kudiyan di Lohri!

Dr Parul Chopra Buttan with her daughter Aanya

I'm not a great fan of the 'selfie' & hardly take one. But on this special evening, I had to click - to chronicle the day I returned to a full-time job after becoming a mother!

As a daughter and the first child in my family, I was my grandparents' and parents' pride, and they put in so much to provide me with the opportunities I have had. I've said this before but what the heck, I'll say it again - as my awesome luck would have it, marriage brought me into a family where those horizons only expanded.
 
I worked hard and completed three post graduate degrees after my marriage (my MS exam was two months after the wedding!), including cracking one of the toughest exams in obstetrics and gynaecology the world over (MRCOG - London).
 
On her first Lohri, my daughter was four months old and exclusively on my feed. That's when I started working again part time, after the maternity break. In the seflies above, she was eight months old and I had taken the the pics the day I joined Max Hospital, Gurgaon, full time as an attending consultant.
 
I'm so grateful for my family and friends who make it all so joyful and rewarding...and possible. I can rush to attend an emergency in the hospital or my clinic at anytime of the day or night; and everything from my baby's care to my food to my car gets arranged!

My mother in law who is a qualified ophthalmologist struggled at my stage as a mother of two, and couldn't practice as much as she would've liked. Result - she ensured every possible help to me and now lives out her 'high flier doctor woman dream' by helping mine come true!
 
My mother who cared for three kids alone for several years (battling a neurological illness with vision deterioration when papa was posted out of station) has been my biggest source of strength, putting in everything she could for our education, especially mine, being touted as the promising child who'd grow up to be a doctor.
 
My father has worked the hardest of us all to get me through medical college – it being as much his ‘tapasya’ as mine. My beautiful little sister has held me through thick and thin, and her wise counsel has always stood me in good stead.

My brother has been my true partner-in-crime through studies and games. My father-in-law has been as much a father to me as to my husband. And my husband is the soul-mate who makes my every dream bigger and his own, to achieve and cherish together.

The effervescent punjabi festival of Lohri takes on an even brighter tone when it marks a family's first Lohri since the arrival of a child. I hope to give my daughter ever widening horizons and pass on the immense love and pride that I've been blessed with. How I wish every daughter would have what I do. I'm living the #KudiyanDiLohri every day and it's a beautiful dream come true!

A daughter brings so much warmth, so much bubbling fulfilment in a family! Being an obstetrician, I'm happy about every baby I ever delivered but these little girls are slightly more special :) 


Aanya with dada and dadi on her first Lohri