A lady with no child is inauspicious. People don’t want to get too close to me,” Jhuma says bitterly. Friends and family are fully aware that Jhuma and her husband Niladri have not been able to conceive, but they still ask how old their child is and what school he goes to. They are trying to “humiliate me”, Jhuma explains. After eight years of marriage their situation is becoming desperate. “We’ve been to many doctors and many gods. Now we are going to Hyderabad.” Out of place and overwhelmed in the cosmopolitan city, Jhuma and Niladri examine the diagram on her desk warily