Epitome of Life - Birth

I couldn't stay away any longer from sharing this piece of my mind with you guys... Lots has been happening this vacation... for a change, i am now down to something serious which i have been waiting to pen down... This post is going to be pretty much bio-related... but i hope i can get across the message that has rested deep within my heart... For the past one week, i have been on-going a training programme in a leading genentics lab in Chennai... With just 5 days of observation of their lab techniques and diagnostics, i have been able to interact with some wonderful people and learn certain amazing, as well as a few devastating truths of life... I also realised how true it is when people say - "Seeing is Believing"

There are some days when we realise how ignorant we have been to certain intricate matters in the world... And today was one such day which has opened up a whole new world to me... In the morning, as soon as i went to the lab, i sat in front of one the free microscopes and began counting the number of chromosomes and checking their banding pattern... After a few minutes, one of the staff there called out to me to observe DNA isolation from blood... While i was on my way to the Molecular Genetics lab, something i saw shocked me... i stood there stunned and it took me some time to believe what i had just seen... And this is what i saw....

A number of buckets were lined with formalin filled in them and some brownish figures were floating in them... a lady in full medical costume, opened up a bucket and took out a palm size fetus... Yes!!! U heard me right, a 7 month old dead fetus... She smiled at me and walked back into her lab... i stood there not knowing how to react... Never in my life have i seen a new born baby... Even when my cousins were born, my parents would not allow me to see the 1 week old baby saying i will contaminate its environment... And today i was face-to-face with a baby which had been removed from the mother's womb even before it was developed enough to be born... Moments later, overcoming my shock and little realising how stupid a question it would be, i blurted out to the staff - " Was that a real fetus? "... Amazed by such a senseless question, he smiled sarcastically and said - " Of course!!! Do you want to see it??? Bayanthura matteengale?!!!? " Bravely i said no and walked in behind him....

Lying on a broad table, with lights neatly focussed on its entire little body, with dehydrated brownish-grey skin, tiny head, eyes closed, bones so thin as though they were made of joint matchsticks, 10 fingers and 10 toes clutched tightly and a white umbilical cord hanging out loosely... was the baby, cuddled in the air... probably it thought it was happily sleeping in its mother's womb, but no, the placenta was lying there beside it... The baby looked perfectly normal to my eyes and i could see nothing but the beauty of a premature new born... It looked orphaned, deserted, helpless and killed even before it had a chance to see the world outside the blood-stained tissues of its mother... Spontaneously, i questioned the lady in the lab as to what was the abnormality in the kid that it has been aborted... She said - " Its head is too small. The baby might suffer physical and mental retardation if it were born. "

Utterly puzzled, i stared at the fetus for sometime and later walked out with a racing mind and a broken heart... How miserable could it have been???... The baby's mother would have taken so much care for the past 7 precious months and the father would have been so expectant of a new-comer, only to find that the baby has to be aborted... Everyday, hospitals see so many couples with repeated abortions, hundreds who are infertile and thousands who are lined up to get counselled for having an abnormal child... The very thought seems really pathetic and discomforting...

Life is so tough to be given... and tougher is to get a life with perfectly functioning parts and one that is free of all abnormalities... A small deletion, translocation or infertilty in the developing fetus can mean so much to the life of the baby...Though the sight of the unborn was so painful, in a way it had been saved of having to lead a life with under developed organs... Truely, i realised how blessed each one of us is to be able to smell, taste, see, feel, understand, interpret, cry, laugh, emote and enjoy the pleasures that life has to offer... The birth of life is such a wonderfully crafted and synchronised series of developments that can be matched by nothing in this universe... I am left with no words to describe my feelings... I only wish that each one of us value the life that has been so selflessly offered to us and we make the most out of it... Enjoy life, keep smiling and take care... Hugzzzzzzzzzzz....

p.s. : This blog is dedicated to my mom and dad... both their b'days fall this month... Happy B'day!!! :)