text: I woke up to the noise of heavy breathing that my 11-year-old younger brother, Aryan made. Every time he wakes up with heavy breathing and sweaty face, meant that he saw the same nightmare. Waking up like this, he would remain upset the whole day, probably searching for the meaning of it. As an elder sister, I am always concerned about his mental health. I have asked him about his dream on many occasions, and he always has the same answer, “I saw a woman screaming as if she was dying”. He started seeing this dream when he was 4 years old. He ran from his bed to our mother and hugged her like he always does, waking up like that. I wonder how terrifying it would be while dreaming like that. Horrific, or maybe this is one of his tricks to get attention from others. Thinking all this I went to sleep again. Later in the morning, I went down to see my dad and uncle Vinod. Uncle Vinod, My Dad’s younger brother visits us every day after the morning jog. He loves us a lot and often brings me and my brother gifts. He lives alone, as his wife, my aunt Megha died long back. My dad thinks that my uncle feels lonely, so we decided to move to a place closer to his home, to which we will be shifting today. It would be even more fun if he agrees to live with us, rather than living alone. I believe it's hard to live alone, no one to talk to, no one to tell how your day went, no good or bad news to share with. A pretty boring way to live I guess. Later that day, when we were shifting luggage to our new home, I slipped on the floor, while carrying a carton full of old papers to my parent’s room. Suddenly, when I was putting all the old papers back into the box, I found a medical report that stated an abortion that my mother had 13 years ago. I am 15 years old, so the report was 2 years since I was born. I was shocked to see that and began to recollect any memories of that time. But I couldn’t recall anything. Maybe I was too young at that time to remember anything. My mother called me from the dining room “Riya, is everything okay there? I heard some noise.” I replied, “Yes all good here. The carton box fell by mistake” My mother said “Okay, come to the dining room quickly. Dinner is ready. We can do this later.” I took a photograph of the report while searching for anything else and replied “Yeah, coming. In a minute.” With all the doubts jumping in my head, I sat with my family at the dinner table. I thought If I should ask mom directly what was the report all about or should I chose to avoid the awkward encounter. My dad started the conversation saying, “Does anyone remember how long we lived in the old house?” Aryan quickly said, “Oh! I know that. We shifted into the old house On 2nd June 2011. So, we lived there for 9 long years” Neither mom nor dad was sure about the date too I guess. Dad said, “That’s right, We lived there for 9 years. I miss the old house.”. Aryan is good at recalling distant memories, that are like his superpower. I asked him “How do you remember it so correctly ?” Aryan replied slowly, “I don’t know. I just remember... everything.” While the usual family conversations were going on, I thought it’s better to investigate about the abortion report myself rather than asking my parents. Anyway, in the end, I can ask my mum. I discreetly opened my phone to check the photograph and saw that the abortion was done at Apollo Hospital. I began to wonder where I was born, so I asked at the table “mum, dad, in which hospital was I born?” Mom replied, “At the Apollo Hospital. Why do you ask?” I replied, “Nah, just curious”. Aryan said, “I was born there too, right Mom?”. I replied, “Yes, you were too”. Later at night, while going to sleep, I thought Apollo hospital can be a good starting point. But why did my parents choose to abort a child? Maybe I’ll find something out from the records at the hospital. But the staff won’t give that information away just like that, I needed a contact. I remember my friend, Abha, mentioning that her elder sister Monika works there as a receptionist. Maybe she can help. The next morning, I contacted Abha for Monika’s number. I contacted Monika on call and explained to her the situation. She told me that they may find some information from the records but it can be risky for her job if anyone caught her. After understanding the seriousness of the issue, she finally got convinced. She told me to come to the hospital at 8 pm, as all the staff goes for dinner at that time, and would be least risky to check records at that time. Later that day, I reached the hospital and waited quietly for Monika to call me. Monika called me up saying “Riya, come here, quickly” I rushed there and told her “check the records for Reema Khatri“, which is my Mom’s name. Monika typed it in the records and told me “There are 3 records by this name”. I replied, “That should be correct, 1 abortion and 2 should be of me and my brother.”. She seemed surprised to hear that and said, “No, 1 record is by your name and the other 2 are abortion”. I was stunned to hear that as there was no record for Aryan’s birth and by the news of another abortion. Monika asked, “Your brother must be born in some other hospital”. I replied, “I guess so. Can you tell me the dates of the records”. She said, “The first one in on 23rd July 2005, when you were born. Second on 18th Feb 2007 and the third one on 19th April 2009”. I was completely puzzled, as Aryan was born on 23rd April 2009. The only explanation that came to my mind of this was that Aryan was probably adopted. I asked, “Monika, did they mention any reason for abortions?”. She replied, “Nothing as such. But both the fetuses were female. At that time, around 10 years ago, the abortion policies were not strict. Many people used to abort a female child, as you know the culture here in our country. Maybe this was the reason.” “Okay. Thanks a lot”, I said and left with a million questions. Nothing made sense anymore. I was baffled. I couldn’t believe my parents would opt for abortion. I felt like I didn’t know my parents as a person, who they really are from inside. And why do parents in my culture still prefer boys over girls? It doesn’t happen in other countries like the United States. We all want our country India to be progressive, but how would it progress if our mentality is not developing. In our minds, we are still old fashioned and believe in caste, religion, gender discrimination. I thought my parents were better than that, better than the rest of the outdated mentality of society. I guess I was wrong. They were also a part of the same society, another brick in the wall. I walked down from the hospital to my home, thinking if I should tell Aryan that he is adopted or not. I concluded that It would be better to let him know. He should know the truth, no matter how hard it is to swallow. He is strong and will take it positively. I reached home and went straight to our room and told him the whole thing, about the abortions and how he can be adopted. I regretfully told him, “So, I think you were adopted, because mom had the abortion around the same time you were born.”, I said. “If you want we can try to find your biological parents”. “I know that. I also know who my biological parents are. Well, you know them too.”, he replied. With all my confusion I asked, “Who are they?”. He replied, “Uncle Vinod and Aunt Megha are my real parents. She died while giving me birth.” I asked, “Since when do you know it?” He replied, “I can recall every memory since I was born. I checked online, It said I have this condition called hyperthymesia.”. “Is that why you have that same dream. Is that woman Aunt Megha in your dream?” I asked. “Yeah, It’s her. I hear the screams she made while giving birth to me” he replied.