The 7 Sins of Being a Mother

The 7 Sins of Being a Mother
by Tahira Kashyap Khurrana
Publisher: Juggernaut (2021)

I read the seven sins of being a mother by Tahira Kashyap Khurrana. The 116-page-book consists of an introduction –‘The sinning starts at forty weeks: pregnancy’ and seven chapters named after seven ‘sins.’

In the introduction, the author talks about her meeting with the gynecologist and discusses the euphemisms for sex used by the doctor. Chotu masi turns out to be quite a character and the author keeps referring to her husband, actor Ayushman Khurrana, as “my boy,” which started grating on my nerves a bit. The reader is left with the image of the author swearing her way through labour.

In chapter one or ‘The first sin: Sex,’ the author scandalizes the reader with her trip to Bangkok and to a ping-pong show, which is a live porn circus, capping it off with her entry into the mile-high club on the way back. I did not see that coming in a book on motherhood!

In the second chapter or ‘Guilt,’ she turns her baby blue. She doesn’t get a nanny and forgets her baby behind at a restaurant.

In the third chapter named after the third sin, ‘infidelity,’ the author goes through a mid-life crisis at 32 years and obsesses over her husband’s classmate.

In chapter four, ‘not a sin, but a confession – ‘submission,’ the author takes us through the experiences of bullying she faced as a child and how she couldn’t stick up for herself when kids troubled her since she had been abused.

In the fourth chapter named after the sin, ‘Tyranny’, she recounts anecdotes regarding her nannies. The fifth sin or ‘Obscenity’ is all about when the author’s little son picks up on the four-letter words he hears and keeps chanting them.

The sixth sin or corruption is about how the author tries to bribe her son to sleep in his room in exchange for a fancy toy and the repercussions this leads to.

The seventh sin or indiscretion is when the author’s children blurt out inappropriate things in front of shocked visitors.

This slim volume is funny yes, but also a bit risqué! The author is painfully honest and her candid confessions will reassure new mothers that they are not doing so badly after all. I’m not a mother, and not even married for that matter, but after reading this book, I could imagine the pressure the author was under to be the perfect mother and how things went rather out of control. She narrates incidents in a hilarious manner and one feels like laughing along with her.

I recommend this book to all mothers-to-be and mothers of toddlers and young children so that they understand that it’s okay not to strain to be the epitome of motherhood. It’s okay to screw up and learn as you go along since parenthood does not come with an instruction manual regardless of all the parenting books and blogs doling out advice on the Internet.

After reading this book, I’m going to pick up ‘The 12 commandments of being a woman’ by the author and read it ‘coz this book was certainly funny and entertaining.