Guest guest Posted February 14, 2005 Report Share Posted February 14, 2005 Pillayaar answered my prayers: Baby 81's motherPK BalachandranColombo, February 14, 2005, 2005|17:16 IST Related Stories [X] close Jayarajahs finally get custody of Baby 81 » Advertisement "Pillaiyaar has answered my prayers! " gushed Junita, the young Sri Lankan Tamil mother, after a DNA test showed that she and her husband, Murugapillai Jayarajah, were the natural parents of four-month-old Abilash. He was admitted to the Kalmunai Base Hospital as a "tsunami orphan" a month and a half ago. Pillaiyar is the Tamil name for the Elephant-faced popular Hindu God, Ganesha. Junita and Jayarajah are both Hindus Both in their twenties, the couple had to fight an excruciatingly long and painful battle with the hospital authorities and in the Kalmunai magistrate's court, to secure custody of their only child. "Enakku romba Santhoshama Irukku, (I feel very happy)" Jayarajah told Hindustan Times in his native Tamil, over the phone from Kalmunai, in southeast Sri Lanka. The finding of the DNA test conducted at Genetech laboratories in Colombo on Wednesday, was revealed to the grim-faced and anxious couple at the Kalmunai magistrate's court on Monday. The Jayarajahs received the verdict with unbounded joy. The smile, which had deserted them on the morning of December 26, 2004, when the tsunami washed away their three-month-old child, came back to their faces in a flash. "The DNA test has proved beyond doubt that Junita and Jayarajah are the real parents of Baby-81," the court Registrar, MSM Nazeer, said. However, the Jayarajahs would not be getting Abilash back until 10.30 am on February 16, when the court would formally hand over the child to them in the presence of the Kalmunai Base Hospital Medical Superintendent, Dr Kandaswamy Muruganantham, Nazeer said. Till then he will continue to be "Baby-81", the tsunami orphan in the maternity ward of the Kalmunai Base Hospital. Advertisement The saga of Baby-81 became an international media event, because, at the outset, as many as nine couples were laying claim to him. To this, hospital nurse Pushpa added a sub-plot, when she took the child to her home, apparently with an intention to being him up as her own. The Jayarajahs, helped by their friend, philosopher and guide, Sriskandarajah, a local English teacher, had to fight hard with Pushpa to get the baby back into hospital. Sriskandarajah, even wrote a letter to President Chandrika Kumaratunga seeking her intervention on humanitarian grounds. But he got no reply, he said. When a formal police complaint was made mandatory for couples to lay claim to the child, or even see him, all the couples, barring the Jayarajahs, dropped out. Even so, Kalmunai Magistrate Mohideen, on the advice of the hospital authorities, refused to hand over the child to the Jayarajahs and ordered a DNA test to confirm their parenthood. Search presents - Jib Jab's 'Second Term' Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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