COMPETENCE
EVENTS
story, as I thought, what decision can be
more important than life itself?
Let’s begin the story…flash back to
1999, I was working for P&G and
had recently relocated to Brussels,
Belgium with Tabi, my wife and 3 year
old daughter, Manal. We were settling
well in our new host country, gaining a
new experience of living in Europe and
getting accustomed to the capricious
Brussels weather. Time was doing what
it does best, moving forward and we
were doing our best to accumulate
memorable experiences. It was six
months into the assignment, when the
most indelible experience began with
the delightful news of the arrival of our
second child, as my wife tested positive
on the pregnancy test.
A week later, she went for a thorough
check up including the ultrasound and
discovered that she was carrying twins.
We were immensely excited, as no
one in either of our families ever had
twins. The news of the twins meant
that we double our preparations for
their arrival. My wife though unlike the
previous pregnancy was not keeping
well and was feeling tired all the time.
We thought it was because the twins
were taking twice the energy.
A few weeks later, she went for another
check up and this time the ultra sound
revealed that we had triplets. It was a
complete surprise, as generally multiple
pregnancies happen when you are
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December 2018
doing fertility treatment, which was not
the case with us. Also it was strange
that the previous ultrasound did not
discover the triplets. We were by now
getting afraid of the ultrasounds, as if
it were increasing the babies. Anyway,
we started to prepare ourselves
mentally for the triplets but destiny had
different plans.
I was on a business trip to Paris, where
I received a call from my wife, who told
me that she was feeling so weak and
unwell that she cannot even walk up
the stairs to the bedroom and is lying
on the floor of the living room with our
3 year old Manal, sitting beside her and
worried. I rushed from the meeting and
caught the earliest Thalys to Brussels
and arrived at our residence in Vossem,
Tervuren. Tabi, my wife was still on
the floor, I lifted her and took her to
the bedroom. She was not looking or
feeling well at all. I called the doctor
at home who said that she is okay but
her fatigue is due to her pregnancy. He
advised us to see the gynecologist.
Next morning, we went to the
gynaecologist and he did a thorough
check up of Tabi. Post check up the
doctor sat with us and in a serious tone
said, “You will have to make a decision
and that too very quickly.” There was a
numbing, deafening silence. The doctor
then took out a piece of paper and laid
out the following options.
1. Keep the triplets. The doctor said
that if you want to keep the triplets,