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Power through life's challenges

                    News papers splashed the news report with pictures. It was in the year 1992. People vied with each other to read the news first and share it with others adding a bit of spice to the news from their side doubting the credulity. Folks began planning their trip to the hospital. It was no less than the ordeal of climbing Mount Everest. The event was the birth of rare conjoined twins. There were two faces very close to each other, so close that the lip of one head was in one of the cheeks of the other. It had three normal hands but the fourth one a little small at the back. The body was conjoined from the heart to the shoulder. The legs free.

 With in hours after the news was telecast, we saw a lengthy serpent like queue in the hospital where the child was born. People thronged from far and near for a glimpse of the baby. The two heads were the most beautiful with a tuft of hair, pink and plump smiling faces. Doctors from J.J hospital, Leelavati Hospital and many other hospitals in Mumbai gathered to discuss the case. The main concern on their list was to operate the child and give the twins a new life but the surgery had a risk and the kids might not have survived the surgery as the operation was a major one where the hearts and many more conjoined parts had to be separated. The other pending cases also needed to be looked into. The ward boys found it difficult controlling the mob. The mother who had wept her heart out on seeing the baby appeared more relaxed and happy now as she interacted with the crowd. They were from Kalam village in Nallasopara which is 20 kilometers away from Nallasopara. The people in the line up carried money and offerings and subsequent to seeing the baby they gave the money and offerings to the couple telling them that the baby was actually an incarnation of Goddess Durga a deity.  On the first day the couple was reluctant to accept anything  but within a week of their stay in the hospital they had brought a tinned can with a large slot where coins and rupees could be thrust. The number of people who came to see the innocent baby augmented so did the contributions. The couple no longer felt aggrieved. There was elation in their eyes as they recounted the visit of Goddess Durga in their dreams and conveying that the twins would reek out tribulations and evils in the world. Still later the doctors came to a conclusion regarding the treatment of the conjoined twins. They called the couple and informed them that the operation on the baby would be performed the coming Monday so that the twins could lead a normal life. They even agreed to waive the fees of the operation. The couple reacted vehemently and said that they didn't want an operation to be carried on the child as the child was a gift of God and above all they said the child had given them a purpose in life. The couple had earned lakhs of rupees in the past week, so wished to keep the baby in the same situation to draw them out of adversities in life. The doctors were appalled, they tried to convince the parents but the parents disagreed and took the conjoined twins home. 
Oscar Wilde said, "To give and not expect return that is what lies at the heart of love." Unconditional love does not thrive on return favours. 
We expect unconditional love from our parents but here in adversity the mother had forfeited the will to move on. She laid the young conjoined baby at stake to earn money. The young one with all its deformities had proved to be a beautiful baby literally and figuratively in blessing the parents with a livelihood as long as it would live with its dis- figuration.
"Intense love does not measure, it just gives," said Mother Teresa





Comments

  1. Anon30 October 2013 at 16:50

    Really shocking! What happened ultimately? Did the baby survive? Or was it operated upon later?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Enthralling Trails- Jyothi Ramesh Pai 30 October 2013 at 23:36

    Never came to know because the mother had refused to get the conjoined twins operated and the doctors had predicted the child would not live long. I wanted to convey the powerful love for money which could transform a mother's unconditional love to conditional one,and how beautiful the child was who could pull his parents out of poverty despite its drawbacks.

    ReplyDelete

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