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Diksha Basu Reflects on Motherhood, Anxiety, Love and Superstition
Diksha Basu writes about how becoming a mother changed her life.
She loved her daughters deeply but often felt guilty when she took time for herself.
She sometimes worried that something bad would happen if she relaxed or left them.
Basu also describes superstitions in her family about planes crashing and the evil eye.
Her own mother showed love quietly and rarely used emotional words.
Basu chooses to tell her daughters openly that she loves them.
She wonders whether this difference is partly because she wants to parent differently from her mother.
Even though she does not fully believe in the evil eye, she secretly puts black dots behind her daughters’ ears for protection.
The memoir tells her daughters that motherhood can be frightening but that they will eventually find their way back into the wider world.
Diksha Basu describes intense guilt and anxiety during the early months of motherhood.
She recalls wanting a medically justified hospital stay because she felt unable to take time away from her baby.
Basu contrasts her emotionally reserved mother with her own openly affectionate parenting style.
She connects family fears about superstition, including buri nazar, with anxieties about losing loved ones.
The memoir encourages her daughters to seek comfort in her experiences while not blaming her for their future struggles.
- Who
- Novelist and mother Diksha Basu, her two daughters, and her mother, a sociology professor.
- What
- Basu reflects on motherhood, parental anxiety, guilt, family affection, and superstition in an excerpt from her memoir.
- Where
- The account includes Mumbai, where Basu’s mother visited after the birth of her second child, as well as family experiences involving travel between India and the United States.
- When
- The events described span Basu’s early months of motherhood and the birth of her second child.
- Why
- Basu examines how motherhood changed her identity and shaped her understanding of love, fear, parenting, and family tradition.
Open emotional expression
Reserved affection
Showing love to children
Open emotional expression
Basu openly tells her daughters that she loves them and expresses affection through kisses and praise.
Reserved affection
Basu’s mother showed love indirectly, rarely praising her daughter or discussing love and emotion openly.
Responding to superstition
Open emotional expression
Basu says she rejects fear-based beliefs and wants to praise beauty and love openly.
Reserved affection
Although she questions superstition, she still places black dots behind her daughters’ ears to protect them from buri nazar.
Key facts
- Author
- Diksha Basu
- Book
- A Mother is Born: A Memoir
- Publisher
- Simon and Schuster India
- Children
- Basu is the mother of two daughters
- Mother’s profession
- Professor of sociology
- Central concerns
- Motherhood, guilt, anxiety, affection, and superstition
- Cultural belief
- Basu refers to buri nazar, or the evil eye, and marks her daughters with black dots for protection
Quotes
Diksha Basu’s mother
Basu’s mother, a sociology professor who helped care for her newborn granddaughter in Mumbai
“Don’t be silly”
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Sources
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