No, dear Daughter, not every big Lady is pregnant!

Yesterday I told you how excited Apra gets these days when she sees pregnant women. This excitement has brought a funny situation that I would like to tell you about. I am not sure whether the conclusion of this situation is that Indians are more direct or that they accept the truth more easily – or actually neither of them.

You already know that Apra gets excited upon seeing pregnant women and points them out to us right away. She usually runs to us and shouts ‘Look Ma and Pa, there is a pregnant woman!’ It is quite cute and brings smiles on our faces as well as usually the ones of the proud parents.

Well, just that in one recent case, the woman was not pregnant!

Oh, Ramona felt immediately quite embarrassed! The heavy lady however laughed out loud and told Apra ‘No, I am just fat!’

It was hilarious! The surprise in Apra’s eyes as well as Ramona’s. Ramona had expected the woman to be indignant and angry about this mistake but she was not at all! She knew why our girl had thought she was pregnant: her belly was coming out to the front as though she was pregnant!

She walked on, still amused, and left us standing there, me laughing, Apra smiling sheepishly and Ramona in between emotions of embarrassment and amusement! And one more feeling: astonishment as to how this woman could say ‘I am fat’ so clearly and loudly with a crowd of people around!

This is something which you can often see in India: someone who is definitely overweight may say clearly: I am big. There is no hesitation at all and no embarrassment to it either. It is an acceptance of this truth which is very different from the hiding and guilty feelings which you can so often see when it comes to the topic of one’s weight!

At the same time however, there is the same craze to be thin that we can see in the west as well! Women give each other compliments on their weight loss and complain about their own weight. Maybe it is just the way how they do it which is different?

One thing is for sure though: Apra learned that not every women with a big belly is pregnant!