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A Girl is Just as Precious as a Boy Melvin Durai Melvin Durai is an Indiana-based writer and humorist. Born in Tamil Nadu, India, he grew up in Zambia and moved to the U.S. in the early 1980s. In 1995, while working as a reporter for a daily newspaper in Chambersburg, Pa., he began writing a regular humor column. His weekly column now appears in several newspapers and on a number of Web sites. He also writes a twice-monthly column on Indian and Indian-American issues. He is a diehard fan of the National Football League and also likes to run, lift weights and play soccer, tennis and pool. An award-winning feature writer and aspiring novelist, he plans to publish a collection of his best columns. You can write to him at comments@melvindurai.com To read his older columns, go to http://www.melvindurai.com

My wife and I are expecting a baby and -- you may be glad to know -- I really don't care if it's a boy or girl. As long as the baby is normal, I'll be happy. As long as the doctor doesn't say, "It's a boy and he already has a beard." Or "It's a girl and she's asking for all your credit cards." I believe in equality of the sexes, but I don't want to be the one screaming in the delivery room.

Give me a normal, healthy baby and I couldn't care less about gender. Especially since, in today's world, a girl can achieve as much as a boy, except perhaps in certain activities, such as coconut-tree climbing, Kathakali dancing, and after-dinner burping.

One of my male friends has five daughters, another has four daughters. Neither friend has tried to kill himself. Not even when taking their daughters shopping. In fact, both friends seem rather happy. Perhaps that's because, as my mother often says, girls are easier to control than boys. But don't tell that to Drew Barrymore's parents.

I have nothing against couples who prefer one gender over the other. Perhaps they own a cattle farm and are looking for some herdsmen. Or maybe they own a dress factory and are looking for some models. Why hire people when you can produce them?

Company president to colleague: "Guess what? My wife is having a boy."

Colleague: "Really? You must be very excited."

President: "No, not really. We had triplets before. That means production is down 67 percent. If this continues, the company may have to discontinue its policy of nepotism."

Traditionally, in India, boys were valued more than girls, largely because they helped create and keep wealth within their families. If nature had cooperated with parental desire, India may have produced a generation entirely of boys -- with no one to marry but themselves. San Francisco would have quickly lost its charm. But on the positive side, India wouldn't have to worry about population growth. Not to mention PMS.

Though more women are working today and dowry is less prevalent, the preference for boys persists. And what's particularly disturbing, many are using science and technology to avoid female babies. "You're having a girl," the ultrasound technician tells the expectant mother. The mother screams and runs to the abortion clinic, as though the technician had spotted an orangutan in her womb.

Ultrasound is a wonderful technology, almost magical, allowing doctors to see if the fetus is normal. I was thrilled to peek into my wife's uterus and see the little one, small hands, small head, and, thankfully, NO beard.

But even if the little one had a beard -- or some other abnormality -- I wouldn't choose an abortion. After all, no child is perfect, but EVERY child is precious.

A female baby is just as precious as a male baby. And women are just as important to the world as men, no matter what male chauvinists say. And if you don't believe that, please find me a man who can give birth.

If my wife and I end up having five daughters, I will not complain. I will just dream about their great potential -- and how they can follow in the footsteps of Indira Gandhi, Arundhati Roy, Lata Mangeshkar, and so many others.

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