epic & science : chap 1
3rd octobar
আজ নিয়ম করে মনখারাপ।...যতদূরেই থাকি, প্রবাসে পরবাসে,দূর্গা পুজোর গন্ধ ঠিক আসে বাতাসের খামে ভরে আমার ব্যালকনির ঠিকানায়।
আজ তিনি ফিরে যাবেন। ....সাথে চার ছেলে মেয়ে।.
দেবতাদের অনেক ছেলেমেয়ে।....ভাল বেশ।.একটা হইচই সংসার।..পুরাতনে ও তাই...
মহাভারতে র চেয়ে ভালো উধারণ র কি আছে?
পান্ডু আর কুন্তি র.বিবাহের কিছু বছর পর মাদ্রি হলেন পান্ডু রাজার দিতিয়া স্ত্রী
এর পর দুই রানী কে নিয়ে পান্ডু গেলেন বনবাসে
One day while hunting in the forest Pandu was illusion ed and killed what he thought a deer but was coupling sage Kindama:
''O king, a Muni who liveth on fruits and roots, though disguised as a deer. I was living in the woods in peace with all. Yet thou hast killed me, O king, for which I will curse thee certainly. As thou hast been cruel unto a couple of opposite sexes, death shall certainly overtake thee as soon as thou feelest the influence of sexual desire. I am a Muni of the name of Kindama, possessed of ascetic merit. I was engaged in sexual intercourse with this deer, because my feelings of modesty did not permit me to indulge in such an act in human society. In the form of a deer I rove in the deep woods in the company of other deer. Thou hast slain me without knowing that I am a Brahmana, the sin of having slain a Brahmana shall not, therefore, be thine. But senseless man, as you have killed me, disguised as a deer, at such a time, thy fate shall certainly be even like mine. When, approaching thy wife lustfully, thou wilt unite with her even as I had done with mine, in that very state shalt thou have to go to the world of the spirits. And that wife of thine with whom thou mayst be united in intercourse at the time of thy death shall also follow thee with affection and reverence to the domains of the king of the dead. Thou hast brought me grief when I was happy. So shall grief come to thee when thou art in happiness.''
So the curse would bar Pandu from procreation leaving no heir to his throne.
সে সময় মানুষ আর দেবতাদের বেশ ভাব। দেবতা সন্তুষ্ট হলে অনেক রকম আশির্বাদ দেন;
Kunti was bestowed with boon from the sage Durvasa where she can bear children without emerging into sexual liaison with her husband. So three sons: Yudhisthir, Bheem and Arjun was born.
Sharing the same blessing Madri gave birth to twins: Nakul and Sahadev.
এভাবে পান্ডু রাজার বংশ প্রস্তর করলো though none bear the DNA of Pandu.
but they lived ever after as pandavas ..or son of King Pandu
3 October 1978
Durga was born; India's first and world 's second child conceived and given birth by method of IVF; it was a moment of pride & prestige.
67 days earlier the world's first test tube baby Louise Brown was born in UK.
Prof. Robert Edwards, the British scientist and his colleague Patrick Steptoe were applauded and awarded for their pioneering invention.
Dr Subhash Mukhopadhyay was summoned before a jury.
He had been the architect for Durga or better i say Durga was conceived within the soul and brain of Dr.Mukhopadhyay.
18 November 1978.
An 'expert committee' was appointed by the Government of West Bengal under the medical association to decide over the fate of a convict named Dr. Subhas Mukhopahyay. His charges are, one, he claims to be the architect of first human test tube baby named Durga (3 October 1978). Secondly, he announced the report to the media before being cleared by the Government bureaucrats. Thirdly, he made this impossible possible with few general apparatus and a refrigerator in his small southern avenue flat while others cannot even think of it, although, having all the expensive resources in their hand (in this research Mukhopadhyay was assisted by Sunit Mukherji and S.K. Bhattacharya). Fourth and most important allegation, he never let his head down by the Government Bureaucrats and his straightforwardness always attracted jealousy out of his peers. The committee was presided over by a Radio physicist and it was composed of a gynaecologist, a psychologist, a physicist and a neurologist. None of them had any knowledge about modern reproductive technology. "Where did you keep these embryos?”Mukhopahdhyay said "in sealed ampules." Then he asked again "How did you seal an ampule?” Speechless Mukhopadhyay could only utter "pardon?” From here started a questioning and counter questioning session which need not to be mentioned was utterly meaningless. "Oh! Embryos do not die while sealing?” there were people who never saw embryos in the entire span of their lifetime.The Committee put forward its final verdict, "Everything that Dr. Mukhopadhyay claims is bogus.''
2010
Dr. Robert Edwards was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine for his invention and contribution towards reproductive science.19 june 1981
Harassed and distressed;punished and transferred to an ophthalmic department barring all of his prospects of working on hormones Dr Subhash Mukhopadhyay commits suicide at his residence.ever since some reporters and journalists had taken the pain to report a grieving wife and invoke some temporary uproar that too had faded with time as Dr Mukhopadhyay himself is lost.
back to the era of 9 century BC
we live in a country of contradictions...we talk about modernization but what it does mean to us to our lifestyle?
our ancient forefathers were far beyond ahead of thought rather;
do we really believe blessings can impregnate a woman? or we decline to see the truth? does an epic centuries old not talk about the same science where fertilization occurs outside womb? and so there are possibilities of multiple pregnancy as well...Madri gives birth to twins Nakul and Sahadev by blessing of god's physican Aswini Kumar...science have got better and advance with centuries only what ancient ancestors of ours could think we can't accept and when acceptance came breaking the handcuff of red tape it was late.
i write this in memory of the man who had dared to think out of the box....in respect to the physician who had lived by his Hippocratic Oath ; i write to salute the scientist who had bestowed many the blessing of motherhood...parenthood rather i say ; i write because many of us from my generation and thereafter would not know Dr Subhash Mukhopadhyay beyond the panorama of Ek Doctor ki Maut.
chap 2
Vaisampayana said, 'Meanwhile, O Janamejaya, Dhritarashtra begat upon Gandhari a hundred sons, and upon a Vaisya wife another besides those hundred. And Pandu had, by his two wives Kunti and Madri, five sons who were great charioteers and who were all begotten by the celestials for the perpetuation of the Kuru line.'
"Janamejaya said, 'O best of Brahmanas, how did Gandhari bring forth those hundred sons and in how many years?
Impatient of the period of gestation which had prolonged so long, and deprived of reason by grief, she struck her womb with great violence without the knowledge of her husband. And thereupon came out of her womb, after two years' growth, a hard mass of flesh like unto an iron ball. When she was about to throw it away, Dwaipayana, learning everything by his spiritual powers, promptly came there, and that first of ascetics beholding that ball of flesh, addressed the daughter of Suvala thus, 'What hast thou done?' Gandhari, without endeavouring to disguise her feelings, addressed the Rishi and said, 'Having heard that Kunti had brought forth a son like unto Surya in splendour, I struck in grief at my womb. Thou hadst, O Rishi, granted me the boon that I should have a hundred sons, but here is only a ball of flesh for those hundred sons!' Vyasa then said, 'Daughter of Suvala, it is even so. But my words can never be futile. I have not spoken an untruth even in jest. I need not speak of other occasions. Let a hundred pots full of clarified butter be brought instantly, and let them be placed at a concealed spot. In the meantime, let cool water be sprinkled over this ball of flesh.'
"Vaisampayana continued, 'That ball of flesh then, sprinkled over withwater, became, in time, divided into a hundred and one parts, each about the size of the thumb. These were then put into those pots full of clarified butter that had been placed at a concealed spot and were watched with care. The illustrious Vyasa then said unto the daughter of Suvala that she should open the covers of the pots after full two years. And having said this and made these arrangements, the wise Dwaipayana went to the Himavat mountains for devoting himself to asceticism.
"Then in time, king Duryodhana was born from among those pieces of the ball of flesh that had been deposited in those pots."
WHO reports each year around 15 million children are born premature; not that all can still afford the cost of incubator....not that all places around the globe have medical facilities to health support preterm kids; the society is moving fast but our predecessors had lessons to teach and we have always looked upon them as moral classes; there is more than a fable in the epic...science and value for life ...social responsibility...life cannot be so mechanical that we just walk past anything that is not my concern...i live here i belong to this earth, am a child of the tree, the sky, as any other in any part of the world...not that all need to confine in laboratories there are more that can be done behaving as responsible human.
"Janamejaya said, 'O best of Brahmanas, how did Gandhari bring forth those hundred sons and in how many years?
Impatient of the period of gestation which had prolonged so long, and deprived of reason by grief, she struck her womb with great violence without the knowledge of her husband. And thereupon came out of her womb, after two years' growth, a hard mass of flesh like unto an iron ball. When she was about to throw it away, Dwaipayana, learning everything by his spiritual powers, promptly came there, and that first of ascetics beholding that ball of flesh, addressed the daughter of Suvala thus, 'What hast thou done?' Gandhari, without endeavouring to disguise her feelings, addressed the Rishi and said, 'Having heard that Kunti had brought forth a son like unto Surya in splendour, I struck in grief at my womb. Thou hadst, O Rishi, granted me the boon that I should have a hundred sons, but here is only a ball of flesh for those hundred sons!' Vyasa then said, 'Daughter of Suvala, it is even so. But my words can never be futile. I have not spoken an untruth even in jest. I need not speak of other occasions. Let a hundred pots full of clarified butter be brought instantly, and let them be placed at a concealed spot. In the meantime, let cool water be sprinkled over this ball of flesh.'
"Vaisampayana continued, 'That ball of flesh then, sprinkled over withwater, became, in time, divided into a hundred and one parts, each about the size of the thumb. These were then put into those pots full of clarified butter that had been placed at a concealed spot and were watched with care. The illustrious Vyasa then said unto the daughter of Suvala that she should open the covers of the pots after full two years. And having said this and made these arrangements, the wise Dwaipayana went to the Himavat mountains for devoting himself to asceticism.
"Then in time, king Duryodhana was born from among those pieces of the ball of flesh that had been deposited in those pots."
WHO reports each year around 15 million children are born premature; not that all can still afford the cost of incubator....not that all places around the globe have medical facilities to health support preterm kids; the society is moving fast but our predecessors had lessons to teach and we have always looked upon them as moral classes; there is more than a fable in the epic...science and value for life ...social responsibility...life cannot be so mechanical that we just walk past anything that is not my concern...i live here i belong to this earth, am a child of the tree, the sky, as any other in any part of the world...not that all need to confine in laboratories there are more that can be done behaving as responsible human.
