Re-search

 The very early years of the twenty-first century those were. I was a research scholar who wanted to be socially responsible and relevant as well. The only way out would be freelancing with newspapers, and which I tried in a big way, and rather successfully. I could get in to a bigwig enterprise like the New Indian Express, and that, too, with the sheer force, eh, power of my pen, and this feat was quite a high. 

One of the regular features, mostly every Thursday, i wrote, dealt with medicine. In my opinion, the social and the societal responsibility of  medicine, especially given the strides in medical technology, is huge. I wrote all sorts of much appreciated articles that dealt with cancer, mental health, and so on. I tried my level best to make them women-oriented.

Well, it was thus that a famous hospital approached on their own to the Desk Editor, of course, via the RE, that is, the Resident Editor, because they wanted a write-up on what they considered their speciality in the Hyderabad of those days, namely, in-vitro fertilisation.

As was usual, the assignment came to me. As was equally usual, I looked up as much as I could through the reference books in the British Council library. Well, I must confess that in the 1990's, two of my favourite most alternative reads, were the world map  (given Raju's Merchant Navy itineraries) and Gray's "Anatomy". It was tough, but fascinating. May be, it was my concession at the psychological level, to Aai's wishes that I should be a doctor. In a way, later, 2008 onwards, it did help me somehow while taking care of her as a fast ageing mother.

Well, when I was to meet the doctor concerned in the hospital, I knew the basic rudiments of in-vitro fertilisation. I WAS impressed with the Frankenstein possibilities of the god-like abilities of man-made birth. Well, in my opinion, 'birth' is actually nature's ultimate wonder.

What I did not realise in my initial enthusiasm was soon to meet me in person, and that meeting showed me the truly Frankenstein side of the IVF. The chief of the hospital asked me to meet one of their patients. She was my age, very beautiful and angrily vocal, and belonged to a rather prominent family.

I still remember her pain when she talked of the total lack of privacy, how encroached upon she felt as the personal most details were getting clinically dissected, how all this disturbed the equation between the couple, and all such emotional turmoil.

In the last paragraph of the article, I did mention this alternative, quite dark, side of the IVF, of course, without revealing her identity. The hospital in-charge was rather miffed because she wanted a merely congratulatory adulation. In a quite feminist high tone, I justified the last paragraph to the RE and the DE, asserting the rights of a patient, especially as a woman. 

Well, all this emotional turbulence came back to me because I have just completed reading "Vital Signs" by Robin Cook (my favourite most medical thriller writer) which deals with the IVF, and what it may do to a woman's body and psyche, not to forget the big business involved. What a deja-vu indeed!

Pratima@ Our daily blog comes this late because I had to leave very early for college. In the afternoon, there was an online seminar. So! Sorry though, my regular readers! Forgive me the delay. Hope you feel the intensity reading the blog as much as I did writing it.