The Name Plate

Having lived in the North, I was quite amazed to see that in Ahmedabad there were no maid-servants for all the cleaning, washing jobs at home. Men did all these. My neighbours introduced me to Kanubhai. He was extremely efficient but extremely chatty too. He had a mild, pleasing personality and like all Gujaratis had that amazing urge to get richer.

He and I hit off well. He enjoyed talking to me and I really liked his honest and straightforward approach to life. We must have been of similar ages, late twenties. While I was just setting off on my career, he seemed to have already lived a lifetime. His wife, Nima used to do some stitching for a factory, while he worked in a school during the day as a peon. They had a Ten-year-old son Nilesh.

He got Nima and Nilesh to come and meet me on a Sunday morning and I saw a proud poor family. I felt really good meeting them and saw in both their eyes a desire to make something of Nilesh. Nima told me about the difficulty with which Nilesh was born. How after they lost their first baby they fasted and prayed at Nathdwar to get him. The delivery was very difficult too. Nima had survived a two hour operation to bear him. They never tried to have another baby because the doctors had warned of a threat to Nima's life. They had put Nilesh in an English-medium school. They wanted him to become a Doctor. "Saheb can you imagine a name plate outside our house, 'Dr. Nilesh Patel'?" she said. Half their family income went as his fees.

I sensed that Kanu secretly wished that his son turned out like me. He would bring him along to my house during his vacations and on Sundays. I was also happy to chat up with him. He was skinny and looked anemic but was a bright kid. He would recite his rhymes and numbers to me, while I always had a chocolate for him in my fridge. They both went back happy.

It was on a Monday morning, when Kanu asked if I could accompany him to meet some foreigners. I was a bit surprised, but was in a hurry to go to office so did not ask any more questions and promised to help him later in the evening. I completely forgot about him and came back home after nine. He was waiting outside the society’s gate. Tension was writ large on his face. I turned my bike around and made him ride pillion. He took me across Nehru Bridge to Relief Road the old part of the town. There we turned in to one of the lanes Pol. After weaving through narrow lanes he made stop in front of a dingy looking old building. It had a board Samta Nursing Home.

As we walked in, a shrill voiced Gujarati woman took us deeper inside. There under the cold white light and in a plastic enameled room were seated a harassed looking Nordic couple. Introductions were quick; Therese and Karl Vogel had come from Sweden looking to hire a womb!

'What? Come again.'

Yes, they were unable to have a baby. New technology allowed their baby to be conceived in a test-tube and gestated in another woman. When they had read about Gujarati wombs-on-rent they had come running. I just sank into the sofa in a state of shock.

'Kanu, what non-sense is this? Are you forcing Nima to go through this? She might die'. Nima walked in just then. 'The doctors have forbidden you to bear a baby again. Why?'

Kanu burst out 'Saheb, I did not even know such things existed. She had registered her name with this clinic six months ago on her own.'

'For money? How much will you get? How can you stoop so low. Its just like selling your body'. I was still shocked and angry. At Kanu, at Nima, at the Europeans, at the world, for making farms out of human bodies.

'Five lacs and all expenses' said Nima. 'This will be enough to send Nilesh to Medical college. Please help us with the contract. You are the only one we can trust'. I could see in her eyes a determination like that of harsh afternoon Sun. She was pleading with me and at the same time ordering me to let destiny be.

'Who do you think I am? This is a crime and I refuse to be a party to it'. I walked off in a huff. Outside in cool air I lit a cigarette and paced up and down the street. I just let my adrenaline come down a bit and came back in. I spoke to Karl and asked him to meet me the next day at a coffee shop.

Next morning Kanu came home early and cried. 'I tried hard to stop Nima. She just won't give up. She keeps saying that this is our last chance to get money for Nilesh's education. That she would be too old soon to bear a child'. I was not talking to him and he kept looking at my face like a pup. I felt some pity on his condition but I was still in shock at the magnitude of the act. She could really die here. I asked Kanu to meet me at Havmor on CG Road at six when Karl would be there too.

We met that evening. I insisted that Nima be put under care of a big hospital. That would have been some Ten thousand Rupees extra on check-ups and another Twenty thousand for the surgery. I also asked for additional Two thousand Rupees per month for Nima's diet. IVF was also to be done at a good but discreet hospital in Anand, an hour's drive from Ahmedabad. To his credit Karl understood the compulsions of the poor couple and did not haggle at all. Just agreed to all I said. Then I asked the really tough question.

'What if she dies?'

Karl became serious and offered to pay for an Insurance policy. We agreed for a Twenty Lac life insurance for Nima with Nilesh as the beneficiary. Kanu began weeping openly. I just ignored him, wanting him to suffer. We then just went over the adoption papers and other legal stuff to the best of my ability.

Vogels went in for IVF the next day. Within three days the doctor pronounced the procedure successful. They opted for a day-5 transfer process. Nima got admitted on time for the embryo transfer. They all waited then for two weeks, during which Nima was given hormone injections to strengthen her uterus walls. With bated breath the entourage travelled to Anand, I had asked Kanu to call me and let me know. The call came late in the evening. The pregnancy was successful. Over the next six months I became the focal point of all their communication and one to allay their anxieties, as they went back to Sweden. Nima was extremely calm and solid in all this period. There was much happiness on discovering that there were going to be twin girls.

I used to visit them at their home in Shahibag. She had grown big and used to sit on a cot outside her house all day. She told me that the babies were very naughty and kept turning inside her. I could see the maternal bonding dripping from her eyes. She had even named the two girls Pankhuri and Kompal. One day she asked,'Shankar-bhai, the deal with them was for one baby. You think I can keep one of these girls'? I said,'Nima, forget it. These are not your babies'.

It was now thirty weeks into the term. Therese and Karl came and had taken up a furnished appartment on Sarkhej highway. I was only worried about Nima. Will she survive the delivery? They had kept a taxi at her disposal, Kanu also took leave from his school to care for her. The babies were growing well.

Then suddenly one day, the pains came when there was no one near. Kanu had gone to buy some stuff, Therese and Karl were away to see some friends in IPCL Baroda. Her neighbours called me. I called up the taxi, informed Karl on his mobile and ran to see her. I reached her house in half an hour. By then the taxi had reached, as had Kanu. We all rushed to the hospital. I had not seen such pain etched on anyone's face till then.

She went straight to the OT. Within minutes they came back to get a consent signed by Kanu. He looked at me with fear in his eyes and signed it with trembling hands. The Doctor came out after half and hour and said, 'She has been bleeding. We'll see'. Kanu began crying.

Two under-weight blond girls were born and put into the incubator. Nima was still in the OT. She had lost a lot of blood as her uterus had ruptured. Doctors were fighting for her life. We had already arranged for two units of blood. The Doctors finally emerged after nearly two hours. She was stable but still critical.

We sat there through the night as she fought for her life. I kept cursing myself for allowing this to happen. How could I? Kanu went home to take care of Nilesh for a while. It was next day afternoon nearly twenty-four hours after they had come to the hospital that she was termed out of danger. She was still in the ICU but haemorrhaging had stopped. I went home to change and get some sleep. I woke up to shrill rings of the phone. It was Kanu. Nima had woken up and smiled at him looking from the ICU window.

I first went to meet Karl. They had been waiting for this to end happily and thanked me profusely. I went to see Nima with flowers and a name plate 'Dr. Nilesh Patel MBBS'. Their smiles were like sunshine.