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some random landline phone number and the replies were staggering. We could openly ask them about checking the sex of the baby and get positive replies in return, that too in 2007- and that too in the capital city of Beed. We got 8 appointments in one day! Now the real task was to carry out sting operations in the unknown territory. 'Beed' that we had only seen on the maps. We reached the circuit house via 'Pandharpur' at around 3 am. Despite sleeping pretty late we were ready by the time the clinics usually open. The village where we resided was new for us, but we very well knew that local auto-rickshaw drivers would know the exact address of 'those' clinics. We found the address of Dr.Sanap's 'Bhagwan Hospital' from a rickshaw driver as well. Dr.Sanap's hospital was just in front of the government civil hospital, which is supposed to look after all the illegal practices! We reached at one of the clinics and saw some patients waiting outside at the desk while the doctors were busy in setting up Lord Ganesha's statue! Ganesha is supposed to protect people from trouble! What a time to carry out our sting! Our team's individual work was pre-decided as usual. Nobody would meet each other or recognise each other until the work gets done. It was Kailash's duty to inform the local media after the sting. Informing the government officials and the other legal work was my duty. Shaila's duty was to handle the clinic after the sting. Babalu and Maya's work was to look out for situations that may obstruct our work. The tension was mounting amidst Ganpati celebration pandemonium. After Ganpati 'Pooja', the doctor in his inners and shorts went to the clinic. He was happy seeing so many patients outside the clinic. Kavita's sonography was done. “It's a boy, but let me confirm once again,” said the doctor. That was really confusing for us as we did not know that people take the second opinion on such things. It was More surprising to see the person Dr.Sanap being called for second opinion. He called radiologist 'Sayyad' from the civil hospital! He did the sonography again to confirm that it was a male child indeed. Half the work was done! Now we just had to call the civil surgeon for legal action and had to keep the sting classified to complete our rest of the 7 appointments on the same day.
