Having the baby in India & foolishness

People have broadly fallen into two camps when we said that we’re having the baby in India.

There were those who expressed incredulity at our stupidity and our lack of love for our child – how could we throw away the option of a US citizenship for the baby? (not to mention the superior postnatal care in the US).

Then there were those who expressed happiness at our patriotism and our love for all things Indian – how could we even contemplate having our baby in that morally decrepit country? (not to mention the superior postnatal care in India).

Now, Kanchuki & I view both of these opinions as slander – they make us sound like intelligent planners. In all ways, it was a foolish decision – in my opinion, the best kind of decision-making:

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K: I’d like to be at home when the baby is born.

A: OK, sound good! I’ll get to eat luchi & roshogullas!!

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Amongst other definitions, Answers.com defines a fool as:

1. One who acts unwisely on a given occasion.
2. A member of a royal or noble household who provided entertainment, as with jokes or antics; a jester.
3. One who subverts convention or orthodoxy or varies from social conformity in order to reveal spiritual or moral truth.

That sounds a lot like what I think of myself!

In my mind, there is too much time and energy spent on analysis and optimizations in planning for an (unknown) future. Sure, many people who do this are successful by the conventional metrics of money in the bank and a 4-bed/4-bath town-home in suburbia.

While I may never have either of these, I am not tied down to any place, any politics or any purpose, and am not a slave to anyone but my fancy. I work because I enjoy what I do. I dont have a loan. I spend endless hours sleeping, eating and talking nonsense with my beautiful wife.

In Walden, a particular example that Thoreau gives struck me as being apt. To paraphrase badly, he asks: “Who traveled faster? The man who took a hour long bus ride to town or a man who walked 6 hours into town?” The answer of course, is the man who walked 6 hours into town – the man who took the bus-ride had to work 8 hours to earn the money to pay for the bus ticket, and so the total time spent in getting to town was less for the man who walked.

So, to return to why we had the baby in India – it is because we’re foolish parents who love our beautiful baby with our baby with our big foolish hearts.