Faith Race

It was an afternoon when the church ladies were chatting up at the porch of one of the members. And the topic eventually shifted to labour pains. Fortunately there were no teenage girls around and if they were, we would have definitely scared them off with the elaborate discussions on the height and depth of birth pangs. And as it is the trend these days, everything(including the mileage of your car) is measured in terms of one's faith, and obviously many were trying to project their 'measure' now. To all those who are ignorant of the issue, it is like this, faith in God and pain(you can put any other word like, suffering, disease, debts in the place of pain here) are inversely proportional according to many, not me. So as the pain decreases, it shows an immense amount of faith in the Almighty.
Apparently, I was already out of the race as I had undergone caesarian section which is considered (according to them and not by me and obviously not by my Lord either) a dead failure, so kept my mouth shut. To me it appeared as if I am amongst the champions in the art of giving birth. There were aunts and my peers who had just a 'few' hours to two hours of labour and whoosh! the baby had come out. There was even a new mother who was glowing with glee more because of her feat (she had just had half-an-hour of labour! Oh my! and I just could almost hear me screaming away for 14 hours in the labour room and Manoj sobbing away in the lobby). She had become the undisputed winner in that faith race and she looked elated like a Miss India (or Mother India). But then the moment of glory was broken by a mother of a four year old. She said, "But I didnt have any pain!". "What!" the next second, all eyes were on her. Unbelievable, miraculous, what great faith, the adjectives just kept flowing...
After tea, each of us were taking leave off the place and I had an opportunity to talk to this wonder woman. "Didnt you feel any pain at all?" I asked her once again dubiously. "No, nothing at all". "What happened then?" I asked. "Well..." she started, "I am scared stiff of any sort of pain and my husband was equaly terrified, so he went and requested the doctor for a painless delivery for me. So, the doctor gave me anasthaesia and took out the baby. When I opened my eyes, the baby had already come and voila, no pain!" "Did he operate on you?" I asked her and she triumphantly nodded. "hmm... thats what we call a C-section" I told her as I turned to leave.