Shefali Vaidya.  🇮🇳Verified account

Yesterday, the Hon’ble bench of the judiciary made an observation that ‘standing up for d #NationalAnthem doesn’t prove your patriotism’.

As I read that statement with increasing incredulity, I remembered a moment in time.

It was January 2006. I was 25 weeks pregnant with triplets. Early contractions had set in.

I was in the ICU of a US hospital. Doctors had made both my husband and me aware of all the possible risks if I delivered immediately.

Low chances of survival, retinal detachment, blindness, autism, heart n lung issues, mental development issues..they threw everything at us

I was on strict bedrest with an IV strapped on my wrist which emptied a strong muscle relaxant into my body to slow down the contractions.

The medicine felt like molten lava was passing through my veins. It burnt. I was hallucinating.

I had terrible visions about my babies. It was the toughest time of my life. I could feel my mind unraveling, one strand at a time.

TV, Books, Jokes, Conversations nothing helped. As I lay down on the bed in that windowless room, the husband sat nearby, holding my hand.

In a desperate attempt to break d silence, he put on a random CD. It turned out to be d Jana Gana Mana CD by Bharat Bala and A. R. Rahman.

Bhimsen Joshi’s baritone voice started singing Jana Gana Mana. Even in that condition, I had goose pimples!

I was strapped to the bed with a heart monitor, a catheter and and IV, so couldn’t stand, but even in that state, I paused the song.

I asked the nurse to raise the bed to a semi-sitting position so that atleast my upper torso could be erect.

Jana Gana Mana started playing again. As I listened to it, the tight knot in my stomach somehow, miraculously, started unraveling a little.

I didn't stop swimming in d sea of fears n uncertainly, but in d #NationalAnthem, I had found myself a raft that I could hold on to.

As I listened to d National Anthem , I told myself again n again, if my love 4 India is true, my kids wld be born only after 26th January!

The crucial 29 week marker was around the 1st of February, but I needed something to hold on to, an emotional anchor!

In the next few weeks, I listened to the Jana Gana Mana CD almost on a loop. And each time, it filled my heart with hope and love.

My kids were born at 31 weeks and one day. They were tiny, less than 3 pounds each in weight. But they had tided over the worst.

Maybe coz I listened to the #NationalAnthem so many times, JGM was d first song my children learnt by heart when they were 18 months old.