The Other Shelter

By Barshita Das

It was an important day of my life as I, Yuvan, a simple guy was successful in convincing my parents for the marriage with the girl I am deeply in love with. Vedika, my girlfriend who was going to be my fiancee soon had also convinced her parents about me. Today our families decided to meet and our hopes touched the cloud nine. Our families had lunch together and everything went as we wished. The date of our marriage was fixed and the preparation of every ritual started in full swing. Meanwhile I made all the arrangements in the flat we would live after marriage as we both stay away from our hometown. Luckily we had job in the same town, we used to live in different rented house with our friends before marriage but now that we were going to start a new life together, I wanted to gift Vedika our own flat. By God's grace everything worked out according to the plan and our wedding was completed smoothly. Finally after spending somedays in my native home where my parents live, we shifted to our city. My parents never wanted to leave the home where they spent their entire life. Still on my request, they pay visit sometimes at my place and spend some days with me. While leaving for Bangalore, Vedika was under the impression that I rented a house for both of us. I willingly threw such hints to make her think so as I wanted to surprise her. Reaching there I booked a cab where I typed the destination of our apartment. Arriving at the door of our flat, I handed over the keys to Vedika and said, "this is the flat I bought for you. This is your marriage gift from me. It's just a house which hopefully our togetherness will make it a home. Open the door and tell me how it is." My this gesture touched Vedika's heart and she unlocked the door. Entering there her eyes remained wide open seeing the interior decoration with well furnished props and furniture. She hugged me tightly and then I took her to our bedroom.

One year passed in no time and our first anniversary arrived. Vedika was very excited about the day. We planned to take leave from work and spend the entire day with each other. But our way of celebration was something different, we never fancied going to clubs or big restaurants to celebrate our happiness. We rather liked to stay at home, cook for each other and watch a movie in the laptop. That day Vedika insisted me that she would cook something special for both of us and kept it a surprise for me. I was eagerly waiting at the dining table for the lunch when she finally brought her special dish. It was chicken biriyani served with raita. An instant smile decorated my face as it is my all time favourite dish. While eating she looked at me and held my hand saying, "On our first anniversary, I want a gift from you. I want to start our family, will you gift me this opportunity?" To this I happily agreed and said, "Is this even a topic to ponder over, your wish is mine and I also want to be a father. Don't worry." Her face sparkled and she giggled saying, "thank God you agreed otherwise today would be the last day you are eating such delicious food, from next time I would have served you the hospital food which is served in my clinic." Vedika was very passionate about her work and she was a very skilled gynaecologist which made her bring her profession in every conversation somehow or the other. And I being a lawyer speak so much in the court and prefers being silent in the home while listening and admiring her talks.

Days passed like this and everytime we checked through the pregnancy kit, it showed negative. Anxiety tried to cripple us when we decided to go for check up. We visited the doctor and all tests were done. The report came which showed that Vedika's uterus was unfit for implantation of the baby, which means even if she conceive somehow, her womb can't carry the baby. This shattered Vedika from inside while I was making futile attempts to console her. She after giving it a lot of thought for some days, finally spoke up to me, "some days ago, one of my patients Aarti visited me for her regular follow up and shared something with me. A woman named Parvati from her hometown used to play wrestling at the state level. But she had to marry at an early age due to family pressure which put an end to her career. Then her husband abandoned her as she used to forbid him from consuming alcohol on a regular basis. She is still very fit but that poor girl is living alone now. What if we approach her and give a proposal to become the surrogate mother of our child. Surrogacy needs healthy woman and she is fit enough for this and ultimately it will help her too as we will provide her with the amount she will charge. I really think we should go for this, what do you think?" I gave it a lot of thought and decided to check the authenticity of her patient's words. I hired people to provide me information about Parvati's background and luckily everything Vedika heard from her patient came true. Then we both decided to go to her in person and discuss about the proposal we were going to make. We took Parvati's address from Vedika's patient and left for that village the next day. Upon reaching there we asked a few pedestrians about Parvati's home and finally we were at her door step. We knocked at her door and a tall woman around 6 feet height opened the door. Her muscles prominently reflected her biceps and looking at the appearance we immediately understood that it was none other than Parvati herself. She invited us inside and we discussed everything thoroughly starting from where we got to know about her and what we want from her and in return what she would be wanting from us. After explaining her the entire procedure of surrogacy, she immediately agreed which indicated that she was also in desperate need of money for her living. We thanked God a million times for sending her in our lives. After signing the legal contract with her which mentioned all the terms and conditions, we took her with us as she was living all alone there and no one was there to look after her during the pregnancy period. Some months passed like this and Parvati became like a family member. She blended with the atmosphere very smoothly and Vedika used to take care of her like elder sister.

But from some days, Parvati was not seemed comfortable. At first we thought there might be some complications she was facing due to pregnancy but on asking her, everytime she used to dismiss the topic. We also never paid much attention to it considering that as one of the pregnancy mood swings.

One day Parvati woke up before the dawn to use the washroom and found the door gate open. She got shocked to see this and thought that some thief probably had entered somehow. She with slow and soundless steps came to me and woke me up. We both switched on the lights of every corner of the appartment and locked the door gate. With sticks in our hands we shouted, "who ever has entered just come up and surrender yourself. You are surrounded and locked from every side and you have no other option." Even after repeating this for several times no one showed up and we were put in a dilemma whether someone really entered or not. In the meantime Vedika said, "how the door was opened like this and that too the key was hanging on the door itself, how come a thief will get the key to use. Where had you kept the key last night?" I replied, "as you know I came from the office late last night and you already slept. I was tired and exhausted too. So I didn't bother to ring the calling bell to wake you up, I simply opened the door with the spare keys I have and then I remember I locked the door and kept the keys over the table unconsciously. But one second if someone has not entered then someone must have opened the door to go outside and this will only be done by the person who is inside the house. If you are here, I am here then..." Before completing the sentence, we rushed towards Parvati's room. Just what we feared, it was all empty. Her cupboard was empty too which proved that she took all her belongings with her and left permanently. We were upset and equally tensed that why she took such a step without informing us and that too when she never mentioned about any complaint she had against us in these months. We found one letter lying on her bed which read, "Leaving like this is not the option I know but still my heart is opting for it." Immediately we informed the police and filed the missing complaint. We searched everywhere in her home, in the village, in her relative's house and every possible place we thought she could go. But she was no where to be found. Vedika's mental health gave up and she broke down from head to toe. She was not ready to eat anything, she became numb to every emotion. She even quit her job and used to spent her day staring at the four walls of our room. She even distanced herself from me and hardly talked to me. I on the other hand, was feeling so helpless that I lost my child and now I was on the verge of losing my wife like this. Still I subsided all my grief and tried to cheer her up in every way possible but all my efforts were in vain. In one such regular morning, she woke me up by pushing me with her hand. Probably she didn't even sleep the entire night. I opened my eyes only to see tears flooding out of her eyes. I immediately got up and started patting her back to assure that everything will be alright. But the thing that she told me thereafter shook me. "You..you are the reason we lost our child. If you would not have kept the keys on the outside table that night, then she couldn't have escaped. It was your carelessness whose price I am paying like this. I can't spend my remaining life with a guy whose face will always keep reminding me that his actions made me lose my child. I can't be with you anymore", she again broke down in tears while saying all these.While I was statued to her words. I couldn't understand how to answer.I needed some seconds to process what my ears just heard. Then I took a deep breath and with a gentle voice replied, "Calm down Vedika, you are very emotionally vulnerable at this point, that's why such thoughts are spiralling your mind. First of all never in my wildest dream I imagined that my keys would be used like this. I mean how could I have the idea that something this unexpected might happen. You also never envisioned anything like this right? And even if you think that it's my mistake, then just think, if she had made up her mind to escape then she would have done it in someway or the other. We wouldn't be able to keep an eye on her 24*7. If she had not found my keys, she would look for some other means to get out of the house and one day she would have ultimately succeeded because she was not a kid. And at the top of all this, was that your child only? The life she was carrying inside her, do I have nothing to do with this? You have to understand Vedika that like you, I have also lost my child. I am suffering equally as you are but in this tough time, we should not leave each other. The only way to get through this phase is by becoming the support system for each other. Please try and understand what I am saying." I kept looking at her with a hope that my words would affect her a bit but then she spoke up, "If she would not have got the keys that night then I can assure you she couldn't have escaped ever because we used to lock the door from outside for her safety when we were leaving for work. And a pregnant woman can't obviously break the door no matter how big of a wrestler she is. Also due to the same reason, she couldn't have jumped off the window either. Thus the chances of her getting escaped became nil with this. And I agree this was your child too but the intensity of attachment a mother has for her child is beyond everyone's emotions. And it was me who wanted the child in the first place, so obviously my emotions will be hurt more. And even if I consider everything, my heart will never make me forget that your one silly mistake cost us so much. If you want me to get stable then you have to let me go, may be then only I will be able to forget somehow that what life has done. If I continue to be with you, this house, your face will keep reminding me of the incident and it will haunt me to my death." I was shattered by her talk but as I loved her, I wished the best for her and if leaving me will take her grief away, then I was ready for that no matter how much breathtaking it was for me. I didn't blame her because if I would have been in her situation, probably I would have reacted the same way. She always remained a humble woman who always used to think of others before her own. She even charged very less in her private practice as compared to other doctors in order to help the poor. She was also involved with many social healthcare activities. So if a woman with such pure heart was saying like this, she must had felt that much devastated which compelled her to say all these. She decided to leave for her hometown next week. She didn't speak anything about divorce to me which made me cling onto a hope that someday she might come back. In one morning between that week, her friend Yamuna who is also a gynaecologist and was her colleague too phoned her. She insisted her to join a campaign which was to be held in a village some 50 kms away from our city. The motive of the campaign was to spread awareness about woman healthcare. I was listening the entire conversation standing at one corner of the next room. She refused to attend the program saying that she didn't feel like going out and hung up the call. I approached her slowly and said, "You are going to leave next week. God knows life will ever make us meet again or not. On my request can you please attend the program, can you please try to live your old life for one day? May be this will free me a bit from the guilt of snatching away your smile. I am just wishing for this one last thing. Will you do this for me? And will you take me with you? Please for the sake of our old memories." This brought tears in her eyes and she agreed. She pinged her friend and told her that she would be coming with them too. The next day we were all set to go. Her friend joined us as we were going by our own car. The rest of the members were coming by bus. We were four in the car, me, Vedika, her friend and the driver. I sat on the front seat beside the driver and Vedika and her friend took the back seat together. In the middle of the journey Vedika spoke up to her friend, "See I have brought so many babies of people to this world but the fate is so unfair, I couldn't even see the face of my own baby." Her crying voice pierced my heart and I was filled with regret once again although she didn't mean to taunt me, she was just sharing her agony with her friend. Her friend was also speechless as we often don't get any clue how to console anyone in such type of situations. Still she wiped Vedika's tears and advised her to keep faith in God. Finally we reached the campaign site where I observed through my window of the car that many people gathered to attend the program. All were villagers and their appearance suggested that they had little awareness about the surrounding knowledge of healthcare. I was glad that my wife would contribute to their well being. When we got down from the car, we saw a man rushing towards us. He was panting when he reached us and said with heavy breath, "Madam, you are doctors right, please attend my wife, she is in deep labour pain and there is no hospital nearby and I am afraid it will be too late if I take her to the town hospital. Please do this favour madam, I will always be grateful." Vedika and her friend without any second thought ran towards his house and entered the room where the lady was crying in pain and they closed the door from inside. I along with the lady's husband were asked to wait outside the room. On entering, she glued to the place where she was standing and kept staring at the lady's face while her friend Yamuna was making every preparation to deliver the baby. I know all these even after being behind the door because she shared everything with me later on. Yamuna shook Vedika and asked to assist her in delivering the baby. Vedika came closer to the lady and with a low voice murmured, "Parvati you are here..." Parvati who was in deep pain looked at her only to realise that she had met the one whom she decieved and escaped. She wanted to say something but was in so much pain that she couldn't bear uttering a single word. She just folded her hands and Vedika was not very sure what she was trying to mean by that. Seeing her condition, Vedika came back from her thinking world and gestured Yamuna that she would be delivering the baby. It was such an iconic moment, a mother who couldn't bear her child in her womb but God's plan is so miraculous, the mother herself was bringing her child to the world with her own hands. The baby was delivered and Vedika couldn't stop her tears in astonishment. While Yamuna couldn't control the overwhelming feeling either and approached Parvati and said, "Congratulations it's a baby girl." While Vedika was still holding the baby with her hands and kept staring at her face without even blinking eye for a second. Parvati with a trembling voice started speaking, "I know my sin is not forgiveable but still for the sake of my inner peace I want to express. While I was at your place, few days before I left, my husband Divendra started calling me. At first I didn't answer and ignored his calls but then my heart melted because I also had some feelings left for him inside me. So finally one day I received his call. He was crying and begging for my forgiveness. He confessed that he realised his mistake and wanted me back in his life. He even told me that he won't be able to live without me and if I don't come back to him, he will take away his life. This scared the hell out of me as I could sense that he was serious about the situation. In that situation my brain thought that as he is unaware of any such procedure called surrogacy he will not believe that this is actually not my child, I am just carrying it. He will think that in his absence I was involved with someone and this is mine and somebody else's child. Given the mental state he was in, he would not be able to digest his thoughts and he would try to bring his words into action that is he would try to kill himself. And I couldn't live with the guilt of being responsible for someone's death. And I knew if I share this with you two, you will obviously not allow me to go. So I had to escape without informing anyone. I came back and told my husband that this is our child. But trust me, every single day I used to regret for separating the parents from their child. I used to think that whether the child would ever be able to forgive me or not when he will come to know what I did. Many a times I thought to meet you and seek your apology but couldn't gather the courage ever. I am thankful to God that He himself brought you to me. Now that my husband has somehow gained his mental stability back, I will inform him about the truth and handover your child to you. Even if he doesn't believe me, I will still stick to my truth for I also don't want someone who will question my character instead of having faith in my morality. Please madam you take your daughter with you and free me from the guilt of snatching away someone's child." Parvati told all this with folded hands while Vedika was just silently listening everything. Finally Vedika said, "I understand your situation but instead of escaping like this if you would have shared your problem with us, we would think about your situation too. We would explain everything about surrogacy to your husband and if needed we would conduct DNA test too to prove that it is actually mine and Yuvan's child and you are just the carrier. Anyways there is no point of discussing now that what could be done and what could not be. This moment is in our hands. Don't worry I will not take my child leaving you in distress. We have come here for a campaign about woman healthcare and I have decided I will explain everything about surrogacy in my lecture. Then we will tell him the truth and then also if he hesitates we will opt for the last option that is DNA test. You take rest, you are physically very week now, you should sleep. Yamuna please put the saline and do all the remaining procedures." Saying this Vedika opened the door and found me and Divendra standing eagerly for the news about the delivery. She came out and congratulated saying it is a baby girl. Divendra asked about the condition of Parvati and she assured him that Parvati was alright. Vedika then said, "on your request I delivered the baby and saved your wife too, now I want my fees. And the fees would be you have to attend the campaign for which we came here. Don't worry Parvati is sleeping now and we will keep the baby beside her along with a nurse that has come with us." Devendra agreed as he was grateful to her but I was confused that why Vedika put forward such a weird demand as I had not seen the face of the mother yet. Vedika didn't speak anything to me either and without any delay we headed towards the site. Reaching there we found that everyone was waiting for us. Vedika went up to the stage and took over the mic and her speech began.

Vedika's speech:

"Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen, thankyou so much for gathering here. The motive of today's campaign is to spread awareness about women's health. I am glad that many men are also present which clearly shows that they care about the women in their life whether it is mother, sister, wife or daughter. The time is changing and with this technologies are advancing to ease our lifestyle and we must have a basic knowledge about the ongoing techniques to keep pace with the moving world. So today I have decided to talk about a very important and helpful procedure called Surrogacy.

Do you know that a child which is biologically of one man and woman can be carried by another woman in her womb for nine months? Sounds unbelievable right? Or you all must be thinking that it is some kind of magic. No honourable guests present here, it is not a magic. Science has made it possible. Let me give you a daily life example to relate with this and for your better understanding. Suppose you have given birth to a child but you don't have a suitable home to keep the child. Let's say your home has holes on the roof for which when it rains, water leaks into your home and the child gets completely drenched and die due to fever. Or may be the walls of your home is so weak that storm can blow it away. In this case the child will be exposed to the storm and ultimately he will die. In both cases, you have given birth to a healthy child but due to lack of availability of a suitable house where the child can be kept safely, the child ultimately dies. So to protect your child you may take rented house or go to any relative or friends' house to take shelter, isn't it? In a similar way, you all know that the a cell from the mother called egg and a cell from the father called sperm combine to form another cell which is termed as the first cell of the baby. In scientific terms we call this first cell of the baby as zygote. So during intercourse when the father transfers its cell to the woman's body where the cell of the woman is already present, they combine to form the zygote and the woman becomes pregnant. I have tried to explain the procedure of conceiving a baby in simple terms. But the story doesn't end here. The zygote lives in the mother's womb for nine months. For those nine months, the womb becomes the home for the developing zygote. And we scientifically term this home/womb as uterus. Now you can assume the zygote is equal to the baby to draw analogy from my previous example. If you remember you had given birth to a healthy baby but you didn't have a suitable home for your baby because of which your baby may die, so you seek shelter from your acquaintances or take a rented house. In the same way, sometimes the cell of man and woman combine to produce a healthy zygote but the shelter of the zygote which is the womb of the woman is not suitable for the survival of zygote for nine months. In that case in similar way we seek other shelter to keep our zygote safe. And then when we find a suitable shelter that is a suitable uterus or you can say a womb, we inject the zygote to that woman's womb and she gives shelter to the developing zygote for nine months. After nine months when the baby fully grows she delivers the baby like in any other delivery and hands over the baby to the original biological parents from whose cells the baby is actually made of. And the woman doesn't do it free of cost untill she is your friend. It is a legal procedure where the contract is signed by both the biological parents and the woman that she will hold no rights to the child after the delivery and in return she will be paid with the amount she will charge for carrying their baby for nine months in her womb just like we pay rent when we live in somebody else's house.This whole process is called surrogacy. So if I have to tell you to define surrogacy in a nutshell, it will be..

Surrogacy is the procedure of transferring the zygote formed by the fusion of egg and sperm of one couple to the uterus of another woman as the uterus of the biological mother is unfit for carrying the baby.

I have tried to explain everything in simple terms. There are various other difficulties which a couple may face while having a baby. This is one of the problems I have talked about so that you can help yourself or someone you know if any such situation arises. Lastly I would like to say that ignorance leads to darkness, so always try to keep yourself upto date with the present world. Thank you."

Completing her speech she walked down the stage and came to us. The claps were not stopping for her commendable way of explaining things. She came and asked Divendra whether he had understood or not whatever she explained. Divendra nodded his head in agreement. Then she requested both us to follow her. She took us to Parvati. I was shocked to see her face and I realised that it was our child she delivered some time ago. She gently put her hand over Parvati's head and called her name. She said, "Parvati, see who has come to meet you." Parvati slowly opened her eyes and saw Divendra standing right infront of him which brought a light smile in her face. Vedika again spoke up, "Divendra I have something to tell you and I will be straight forward and honest with you. The procedure which I explained at the stage, we used this in our life. Me and Yuvan are the biological parents and Parvati is the lady who carried our baby as my uterus was not fit. She needed money at that time to survive and we needed someone to carry our baby. So we signed a contract and she willingly got pregnant with mine and Yuvan's child. We still have the contract papers, if you want we can show you. She didn't have the courage to tell you about this because as you didn't know about any such procedure, she was afraid that you will question her character. You will think that she was physically involved with someone in your absence and this baby is the consequence of this. And she also feared that you will try to harm yourself thinking all these as you were emotionally unstable at that time. That's why she even left our home without informing us. But by god's grace today I became the one who delivered the baby and the whole scenario has come to light. I have told you everything that has happened but still if you want anymore proof, for your peace we can conduct DNA test, it will definitely clear all doubts about who is the biological parents." While she was saying all these, my only focus was on our baby, tears silently rolled down my cheeks seeing her innocent face. But then I diverted my attention to Divendra who finally spoke up, "Thankyou for enlightening me with the knowledge of surrogacy, yes I didn't know about anything like that, and if this was told to me before, probably I would not have believed. But now that you have explained everything so clearly, I understood each detail of the procedure. I can sense how much my Parvati has suffered in my absence, she has forgiven me but still I feel guilty for pushing her away from my life at one point of time. But now for me my wife is my first priority. I am thankful to God that she is safe now after the delivery of the baby. I don't need anymore proof, I don't want DNA test for I can't stoop any lower by asking the character proof of my wife. This baby is yours, you should take her with you. And we will be glad that we could be useful to you and regarding us, we will have another baby of our own, time is not running away isn't it?" Saying this he put a kiss on Parvati's forehead while she dropped tears of relief. After addressing the folks properly and completing the campaign with a grand success, we returned home with our child. On entering the home, Vedika held my hand and said, "Sorry Yuvan, I kept blaming you for something which you didn't want intentionally. My anxious state made me believe everything I thought I will never even consider. But see I blamed you for losing our baby but today we got our baby because of you only. If you had not convinced me to attend the program, we would have never gone there and would have never met them. So actually thanks to you." Saying this she hugged me when I said, "I understood your situation but I had faith in God, I regretted everyday for causing you pain intentionally or unintentionally. But I am so grateful to God that He returned our child to us. And thanks to you too, if you had not explained everything so nicely, Divendra would have never understood." We both smiled looking at each other and took our child to the Puja room. We lit the lamp infront of the God and put a kala teeka on our baby's face to protect her from every evil eye. "Let's keep her name Santoshi as her arrival has brought utmost satisfaction (santushti) to our life", I demanded. Vedika smiled hearing the name and we both placed a kiss on our baby's forehead. And then with a warmth in our heart, we at last congratulated each other for finally becoming parents.

Moral of the story: Everyone should be aware of modern day healthcare facilities.

By Barshita Das