Homesh is a software engineer working in the USA. He completed his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in India and was selected in a campus interview. After working for two years in India, his company sent him to the USA, where he stayed in an apartment with his office colleagues.  

 When he was past thirty, his parents insisted on his marriage. Homesh left the selection of the girl to the parents. His requirement was for an educated, intelligent, and beautiful girl.

People in the USA go to beaches to enjoy the weekends. One Saturday morning, his roommates planned a visit to the beach that weekend. They relished food, drinks, the sea and the sands and were returning at night. Homesh was driving. Their car met with an accident. He died on the spot. His friends informed his parents and arranged for the body to be shifted to India. His father performed all the cremation formalities.

*

Viraja was a software engineer working in India. She comes from a poor agricultural family. Her father had five acres of agricultural land. She is the only daughter. He sold two acres for Viraja’s education. While in college, she fell in love with her classmate. They moved together to hotels and parks. After college, they settled into their jobs at different places. He married another girl chosen by his parents from a wealthy family. She gathered the courage to withstand this deception. With this incident, she developed an aversion to marriage. She wanted to lead a bachelor’s life.

Her parents insisted on marriage, and she declined. They did not force her.

*

When she was past thirty, her parents wanted her to adopt a child so they would have a grandchild. Their idea was that a child adopted now would help Viraja in her old age. She was initially reluctant to such a proposal but later considered it. Her female friends said that adopting from a relations circle or orphanage had problems and suggested ARtificial Insemination (ARI). She was in search of fertility centres.

*

 Sukrithi did her masters in Gynecology and started a fertility centre. She was helping infertile married couples to have children. In the process, they collect the semen of the male, ovarian tissue of women and cryopreserve for future use.

Viraja learned of Sukruthi’s fertility centre and told her of her parents’ interest in having a grandchild and requested her help, as “She is not interested in adopting a child.”

Sukrruthi said,  “This procedure is only for infertile married couples.” Hence, you have to be married and infertile.

Viraja could not find a solution and requested that Sukruthi find one. She said that having been in this profession for several years, she better knew the ins and outs of the profession and could help her if she intended.

*

Sukruthi ensured that Viraja became pregnant. Sukruthi did not provide the donor details, and Viraja was also uninterested. She gave birth to a baby boy. Her parents took care of her throughout the pregnancy and delivery period. They knew it was through ARI.

She, her parents, and Sukruthi have protected her privacy and kept her pregnancy a secret. During her pregnancy, she resigned and moved to a different place with her parents.

The boy was named Hemadri.   Viraja educated him, and he became an SWE.

*

 A senior citizens’ meeting was arranged at a hotel in the city, and most of the senior citizens attended. Viraja took her parents to the meeting, and Hemadri joined them. In the meeting, the doctors suggested various solutions to senior citizens’ day-to-day problems, old-age issues, and how to lead a healthy and peaceful life.

One senior citizen couple saw Hemadri, called him near them and asked, “ What is your name and who are your parents?”

Whenever Hemadri asked his mother about his father, she gave him his name, Sangli Kumar, and he died in an accident immediately after his birth.

 Hemadri called his mother and introduced her to the senior couple. 

The elder couple inquired further and found that Viraja graduated from the same college as Homesh. They remembered seeing her at Homesh’s college graduation function. She was two years junior to Homesh in college. On that day, she played a skit.

 They introduced themselves as the parents of Homesh, her college senior. She could not recollect Homesh from her memory. They took Viraja’s contact number and said, “We will contact you sometime later.”

 *

After about a week, they called Viraja. The older couple was sitting in the hall. After offering her respects to the older couple, she sat on a sofa.

She inquired where is Homesh. They started weeping and said, “After going to the USA and working there for two years, he met with an accident and died on the spot. His body was brought here and cremated.

 They showed her a photo of Homesh on the side wall. It was a large photo with his name, DoB, and DoD written and garlanded.

Viraja was surprised at the resemblance between her son Hemadri and Homesh. When she looked at Homesh’s DoD, it indicated that he died two years before Hemadri’s birth. So, she thought Hemadri and Homesh’s resemblance was something mysterious.

 She did not express her feelings, and the older couple observed her intently.

 After looking at the photo, she could recall Homesh from her memory. Homesh was an intelligent topper of their college, two years senior to her, and had won several prizes for his academic excellence.

*

Homesh’s parents inquired about her marriage. She said, “She is married, and her husband died. She is presently lonely and uninterested in marriage.”

They further inquired whether she had met their son after college studies. She said no. During the conversation, she gave the DoB of Hemadri to clear their doubts. They were silent.

*

 After some time, she left the place. But she was in a dilemma about how Hemadri could resemble Homesh. She had no idea of Homesh in her brain all these years. She could recollect him only after seeing his photo.

She thought Homesh’s parents wanted to know the details after discovering that Hemadri resembled their son. She wanted to know from Sukruthi of any such possibility.

*

 She went to Sukruthi to tell her about Hemadri’s resemblance to Homesh. Sukruthi listened carefully to Viraja and said she had no answer.

 After Viraja left, she opened Viraja’s file and looked into it for details. As she requested confidentiality, Sukruthi got a fake marriage certificate in the names of Viraja and Somesh(an unknown person). She then thought of using Homesh’s Semen, stored in her lab, as he was in the USA. She did not know about Homesh’s death.

*

 Sukruthi and Homesh were classmates up to the tenth class. He took MPC and joined Engineering. She took BiPC and joined Medicine. He graduated with information technology courses and worked as a software engineer. She opened a fertility centre.

 On the day of the opening ceremony, he requested her to cryopreserve his semen for future use after his marriage if necessary. She said, “It was not necessary for most young age couples. If ARI is found necessary, she will help to have children with his wife.”

As Homesh persisted,  she cryopreserved his semen.

*

Sukruthi didn’t know that Homesh died two years after cryopreserving.    It so happened that a dead person, Homesh,  was the donor for Viraja.

Sukruthi was worried about an unintentional happening. There had been no such cases earlier.

   In reality, Hemadri was born to Homesh posthumously. Now, the problem is, can a dead man have children? Can Hemadri claim the dead man Homesh as his father?

*

Viraja understood that something went wrong in the ARI lab, and she and her son had to face the problem.   She understood that the donor was Homesh after his death. She was worried that Hemadri was not born to a living human being but to a dead person.

Hemadri could sense some problems with his birth from his mother going to the fertility lab frequently. He knew the reality of his life. He was dumbfounded that he was born to a person after his death. This was unnatural.

He prayed to God for an answer to his question. God said, “You are the Future Human Being.”

*

When Homesh’s parents learned about the details of Hemadri’s birth, they requested that Viraja permit them to adopt Hemadri as their grandson so they could see their son in him. They legally accepted Hemadri as their grandson and Viraja as their daughter-in-law.

*

( Note: This imaginary story looks into future possibilities, with present-day technological advancements and awareness among the young generation for their use and misuse. The present generation is uninterested in marriage and delaying or avoiding it.)

*