AHMEDABAD: Saroj Changakar does not have time to relax after retiring as a primary school teacher. The Petlad resident, who will soon turn 60, is on her feet day and night, bringing up her four-month-old twin sons Bakul and Utpal. Sons by the same names she had lost to an accident and to cancer in 1993 and 2012.
Saroj is known as Petlad’s miracle mother since the birth of twins. On the same day in 2012, she had lost her 24-year-old son Krutil who she lovingly called Baku. On the day of his death, he had just landed his first job in a hotel. Saroj had earlier lost her younger son Utpal when he was just four.
“The one thing which helped me keep my balance was faith that I was destined to die a mother of two,” says Saroj, her voice brimming with energy that betrays her age.
Faith that she got when her Muslim neighbour Fatimabibi dragged her to Ajmer Sharif after two miscarriages. “Fatimabibi kept a mannat for me and I was told that I would become a mother of two sons,” says Saroj, who is married to fellow primary teacher Purshottam Changakar.
She was blessed with two boys in quick succession, but Utpal was diagnosed with blood cancer when he was three. “I surrendered myself to his care but Utpal succumbed to cancer on July 15, 1993. I was shattered but Krutil kept us alive,” says Saroj.
Time flew and Krutil completed a master’s degree in hotel management. On January 20, 2012, he called up his parents to prepare his favourite meal as he had got a job offering him a monthly salary of Rs 45,000. The couple waited but got a call instead. Krutil had fainted and the fall had killed him.
“I was shattered yet again but then I remembered the blessing that I was destined to be a mother of two.” Saroj and Purshottam consulted a local in-vitro fertilization expert but were told they would have to wait for a surrogate. They came to Ahmedabad and started treatment.
“Saroj was 58 years but the womb was healthy. We used a donor egg and implanted the embryo. Luckily, Saroj became pregnant in the first cycle itself. Her twins were delivered on January 21 this year,” says Dr Falguni Bavishi.
