Vinit KS

How many of you have you seen Angels in real life. No, even I never saw an angel, but it is irrelevant whether I saw one or not. I have realized recently that they are always around us.

And the realization of angels came from a tiny and beautiful Angle named Annie. Fortunately, I also happen to be her father. God gifted me this Angel a year back. However, unfortunately when my angel, Annie was born in Noida, I was busy executing my project in Sweden and was able to meet her only after two weeks she was born.

But when I picked up Annie for the first time and saw in her eyes, magic happened! I realized that I have created an Angel. To hold this little human being, with her little fingers and tiny feet, left me in awe of just how truly amazing life is. A sense of peace that I’d never felt before overcame my body, mind and spirit. In a flash, my life had changed forever. And I realized that a daughter is one of the most beautiful gifts in the form angels this world has to give.

But what pains me is the fact that in our own country, there are few people who still are not happy when a daughter is born. Hence even PM had to ask us to share our selfies with daughters with has tag #Selfiewithdaughter. Some of us are still obsessed with male child. The zeal to have at least one male child creates havoc and many families keep making babies in the hope of getting one male child as if it was the only way to survive. It may be a surprise to some that the decline in the number of girls is more pronounced in richer and more educated households. An increasing number of Indian families with one anglel girl are aborting subsequent pregnancies when prenatal tests show the baby is also female. And reasons are bizzare for having son –

1. Men are considered better bread earners – Angle CEOs like Chandra Kochars and Indirya Nooyis
2. Men are considered better and dependable drivers – Probably they have not heard of angels Sunita Williams and Kalpana Chawlas, who flew space shuttles, millions men drivers can’t do that together.
3. Girl is a liability, boy an asset – Probably they have not heard of Angels like Sanias & Sainas.
4. Girl needs to be protected more – Probably they have not heard of angles like Lakshmi bais, Kiran Bedis, and Mary Coms, rather men would seek protection from them.
5. Girl belongs to someone else – But if you look around, the fact is that Girl always belongs to their family, its only mostly boy who belongs to only his wife and not family after marriage.
6. A boy carries forward the lineage – Who would be proud of the lineage of Dawood’s, Lakhwi’s, Lalu’s.
7. A girl could bring disgrace to family – Probably they didn’t hear of Angels like PT Ushas, MS Subbalakshmis and Lata Mangeshkars

But even then the fact is that between four million and 12 million Angels are aborted between 1980 and 2010. Thank God they didn’t kill the first female foetus otherwise I would not have been here to deliver this speech, and neither would you to, hear it.

I will end here since I am eager to meet my Angel – Annie, who cannot stand yet but flies when she is happy. You must be surprised to hear this, but that its a fact that she flies with her wings. How? Like this – the moment she will see me returning from office, she stands on her knees, start flipping her hands as wings and repeatedly says ‘papa’, ‘papa’, ‘papa’.

Thank you!

P.S. – Delivered this speech as my P6 (CC6) project at Toastmasters.