We were there first !

Long, long after the magical or mysterious conception of many of our Indian mythological kings and Gods, the science of artificial insemination finally reached the Western world and a mere 30 years ago from today, the first recorded test tube baby was born. Louise Brown , born on 25th of July 1978. But we were there first.

When our grandmothers narrated the stories of Ramayana and Mahabharata to us, I was too young to wonder how one woman can bear a 100 sons or how a human can mother a monkey. Such details were left unexplained by the elders and unexplored by our young minds since the fact that Hanuman can grow himself to any size he wants was more fascinating than how he was born.

But just as we were growing up and the birds and bees started pecking into areas of the brain cells having direct anatomical connections, arrived Ramanand Sagar with Ramayana and Mahabharata on TV. Just as we were starting to discover certain mysteries regarding pro-creation of life, Rama and Sita arrived directly on the television screens of our home. Suddenly, Hanuman’s expanding form or Kumbhakaran’s ability to sleep was not as exciting as the love between Ram and Sita or the Raas Leelas of Krishna. The details censored by our grandmothers were now being exposed to us in a way any viewer of Indian cinema could understand. By then , we knew that a girl puking would mean that she is pregnant which was a good thing or bad, depending on her marital status. Yes, I’m still to figure out how a doctor can confirm pregnancy by just feeling the nerves of the wrist, but who knows maybe its some bit of knowledge hidden in the shastras and passed on only to Medical students in India ? Back to the point, when the screen focussed on two flowers moving shakily towards each other, we knew that the next scene would show Ayodha erupting with joy at the birth of a new baby (somehow the image of Sita puking is ungodly and unsavoury, so that bit was not shown - after all, morning sickness is for us lesser mortals).
But what we failed to fathom, and thereby marvel at, were the other kinds of bizarre conception. Some examples :
1. Lord Rama, Lakshmana, Bharata and Shatrughna were born to the three wives of King Dasharath after they consumed ‘pudding’.
2.Anjana, Hanuman’s mother was offered some of the ‘pudding’ by Pawan, the Hindu deity of wind, and gave birth to Pawan Putra Hanuman.
3.Pandu, the father of the Pandavas , was cursed not to have children and both his wives, Kunti and Madri, gave birth to the 5 pandavas after ‘boons’ from different Gods.
Amar Chitra Katha comics usually depicted these intriguing scenes with a lady bowing her head deferentially to receive the blessing from the Gods who were giving them the ‘prasad’ (holy food). But the television screens glared and intrigued us with the hidden meaning behind the look in the eyes of the heroine. Reading a comic was often done in isolation, but watching the TV was a collective experience and the silence and uncomfortable coughs of the elders during such scenes were enough to convince us that there was more to it then meets the eyes.
Time makes us all wiser and as new vistas of knowledge were opened to me, I realised that these were probably cases of artificial insemination. They were all test tube babies, much, much before Louise Brown and was a testimony to the powerful science hidden in the shastras written eons ago.
Harman Baweja could not show it in Love Story 2050, but a day may come when scientists find a way for people to expand to any size they want (and conversely shrink to any size they want – such a welcome thought for the likes of me), but we already had Hanumanji doing it ages ago. Cloning may have just taken off in the west, but cross species transplant ? Hah, it’s a long way off, I am sure, but we already have Ganeshji. If and when cross species transplant happens, I may not be around, but definitely some other Indian like me will say, We were there first…!