“It’s a Girl,” They Said. The Father Cried and Left. I Wish I Wasn’t There.

In many parts of India, the birth of a daughter is met with silence, grief, or worse. Whispers about blame, about back-room ultrasounds, about pregnancies that quietly ended after. I grew up in Bihar hearing these stories, but they stayed abstract, distant. Then I was standing in a hospital hallway, and one happened right in front of me.