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'Quint-essence'
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A family with quintuplets, on the outskirts of the city, finds the going tough...
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Remadevi with her children
When the world's first quintuplets (to have survived infancy) were born to the Dionnes couple in Ontario, Canada, on May 28, 1934, chances of their survival seemed thin.
However, things looked up after a birth announcement in the local daily. They were taken over as wards of the Ontario Government and moved to a hospital. Public support and money poured in. The babies' health improved, but they lived in the hospital until 1943. The hospital came to be called Quintland, and the quints became a huge tourist attraction.
Cut to our own State.
November 18, 1995.
Five babies were born to Prem kumar and Remadevi at the SAT Hospital in the city. Apart from routine reports in the media, which brought in sparse help from the public, and a meagre Rs. 3,000 from the Government (when the children were in kindergarten), the couple had to strike it out on their own.
As Premkumar's provisions shop, at Vazhakkad (near Pothencode, on the outskirts of the city), ran at a loss, expenses related to the delivery (preceded by nine months of treatment for the mother) and healthcare of the babies, could be met only by borrowing money from friends and associates and by selling jewellery and much of the family property.
Matters became worse, when a few years later, the young mother underwent a pacemaker-implantation surgery.
This plunged the family into deeper debt.
Emerging from her house in a white sari, a string of rudraksha adorning her neck, Remadevi is a picture of serenity. "I am now seeking refuge in spirituality," she says.
The quintuplets, four girls and one boy, prance around her, keeping up a lively prattle, blissfully unaware of the harsh realities that surround them. Named Utra, Utraja, Utrajam, Uttara and Uttama, they are already full of plans for the summer holidays.
"We will play kurukkanum kozhiyum and watch Dileep and Mohanlal movies on cable TV next door," they chorus.
Class one students at the Lourde Mount School, Vattappara, they have been exempted from the school fees. "It is a welcome relief. The bus fare, books, food and other expenses total up to around Rs. 3,000 every month. It has to be met from my husband's bakery, which struggles to survive," Remadevi points out.
She hopes some philanthropist would sponsor the children's education. She cannot bear the thought of separating the pint-sized, bright-eyed quints.
Sitting in a row on the same bench in the classroom, sleeping in the same room, waking up together, praying together to their favourite deity, Krishna, and wearing identical clothes, they do not have any memories apart from one another.
Remadevi's eyes moisten as she recalls an incident soon after she was brought home after her heart surgery. "I was trying to catch some sleep in my room and one of them came and called me. When I didn't open my eyes, she sought the help of the next one, and the next, until all five had assembled around my bed, as a family would, around a dying person. They pleaded to me in chorus to open my eyes."
Remadevi and her husband wait for the day when society would open its eyes to their plight.
N.H.
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