ROCK THE CRADLE

A new South Asian mother, Pari, delighted with the news of having a baby girl, Rehraas, has her fair share of prepartum woes, dealing with family interference, nausea, and vomiting. But once she gives birth, she realizes she may be stuck in a place of darkness by herself, without knowing how to get out. Be it her struggles with breastfeeding, dealing with insensitive comments from family members, or the crippling anxiety that something can happen to her newborn baby, Pari soon dissolves into her puddle of grief - grieving for the woman she used to be. While she loves her daughter dearly, Pari finds herself suffocating, figuratively and literally, and the time soon comes when she may feel that there is only one way out of the pain. After testing the waters once, she finally reaches the brink of complete frustration when her daughter is having a meltdown. As she finally descends underwater in her bathtub, her husband reaches home from work, notices their daughter alone in her nursery. Taking in the disarray, he calls out frantically for Pari and steps into water on the washroom floor as he realizes what is happening. He hurries towards Pari, and pulls her up above the water again, and holds Pari and Rehraas close.