There are some instances in your life which cannot be forgotten. They either bring tears of joy or sadness but cannot be erased. These instances shape you into who you are. One such instance of my life occurred on 9th May, 2017. Memory flashes I left from home for work as on any other day, with my hair done up, swaying my Prius keys and waddling through my porch. The highway 138 in California was a part of my daily commute and little did I know what was in store for me on that ominous day. I was driving, tapping my fingers to the Evanescence streaming out of my car-radio. The next thing I remember was my car enveloped by smoke, my body covered in blood, and dragging myself painfully out of my car. What the cops said was that there was a pothole in which my front left tyre got stuck and I lost control of the vehicle at a speed of 100 mph and crashed into another car in the next lane. I was rushed to the San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Centre. While in the ambulance on our way to the hospital, I remember experiencing mixed feelings like never before.

It’s just been 3 days since I’ve turned into a hundred years young man, and here I am, already at my desk, reminiscing on my century of life. It’s not easy to find a man of this age living in the US. It’s probably as difficult to find a monk in the States. Well, I’m a Japanese monk who moved to southern California to preach Buddhism when I was in my 30s. In Japan, I wasn’t much into formal education. Right from childhood, martial arts caught my fancy. Bruce Lee was my role model. My father was also a monk, and I followed in his footsteps. When I turned 20, I completed my studies as a monk. By then, I was also an expert practitioner of Kung-Fu, with a black belt. For the next ten years, I taught everything that I learned from my masters. I wanted to explore the world and contribute to the spread of Buddhism. And before long I hit upon the idea of moving to the United States. One of my old friends had recently started working for a monastery in Southern California, and after getting in touch with him, I decided to follow suit. Well, that’s enough about me!

I’ve always considered myself to be one of those people who lives life to the fullest. Traveler, explorer, musician, writer – I’ve been all these and more. I was never great at school, but my life has been nothing if not learning through experience. And yes, my life has also been all about taking risks. Sometimes those risks pay off. Sometimes they don’t. This is the story of one of the times that a risk really didn’t pay off… I was in Goa, in India, for a photoshoot assignment. I spent over a month seeing the sights and location-scouting. Meeting new people and getting to know them and their culture always excites me, so this was a great opportunity to mix business and pleasure. Things were going great. On the first day of the shoot, I was introduced to all the models. I befriended them and we all got along pretty well. Of them, a Spanish model caught my fancy. Coincidently, her shot was the last one and as soon as I said, “pack-up”, the tiring day demanded some fun afterwards. Since everyone had left, we decided to go for a quick drink. Once we got to talking, that quick drink became a not-so quick one.

I decided to get a pregnancy test done after I’d missed my periods by more than a week. The two bright lines from the test looked back at me with a smile. We’d been married for less than a year by that point and my husband and I was not planning to get pregnant. However, this was exciting news for both of us! A couple of weeks later, my doctor called us over for the first scan and looked up at me with a grin. “So, excited about the babies?” she asked. “Babies?”, I asked, startled. My husband and I looked at each other. That was when we learnt that I was pregnant with twins. I have no family members or friends who had twins and had no idea what to expect. This was completely uncharted territory for me and my husband! Recommended Read:  Pregnancy Glossary for To-be-moms We called our family over and gave them the news that weekend. “Twins! That’s amazing” shouted my mother. She was happy about getting two grandkids at the same time. The entire family felt elated at this exciting turn of events. They did not even think we would be having kids so soon, let alone two at the same time.

I was 33 years old, and already the mother of a 11 year old son. Life was as normal as it could be. And then came the big surprise – the unexpected birth of my second child! Pregnancy is a period during which a woman normally exercises the utmost care. The symptoms of pregnancy can be disturbing sometimes. The constant feeling of nausea can be overwhelming. And the feeling of a new life growing inside you is something that’s bound to constantly weigh upon you. So if I were to tell you that I didn’t experience any of these – that I went about my life normally without a care in the world, and without a clue that I was carrying a child in my womb – you’re bound to be a bit skeptical, if not outright shocked! But it’s true. 1 out of every 3700 pregnancies are unexpected. The reasons vary among women. The most common among them is obesity . Others may neglect the pregnancy symptoms by living in denial and trying to convince themselves that they are not pregnant. Well, my case is a little different from these. In fact, I was a little surprised to learn that I wasn’t the only one who’d ever had this particular experience.