Congratulations Mumbai

While commuters had watched like 8216;8216;Gandhiji8217;s monkeys8217;8217; as a girl was raped on a local train last year, a dozen pas...

While commuters had watched like 8216;8216;Gandhiji8217;s monkeys8217;8217; as a girl was raped on a local train last year, a dozen passengers partially cleansed the blot on Thursday by helping a woman deliver on a moving train.

The baby may have been born to one but the joy was shared by all the women aboard the Churchgate-bound local. They have named her Lakshmi, as she was born on Thursday, a day auspicious to goddess Mahalakshmi.

Shobha Jarkewadia, who gave birth to Lakshmi, is now basking under media attention. Seated on crisp sheets on a hospital bed, she confesses that she had been terrified at the thought of delivering her baby on the train. She thanked a 8216;8216;messiah8217;8217; in the form of a mysterious doctor who helped her.

The 28-year-old was travelling to Cama and Abless Hospital at Fort, Churchgate, for a sonography when she went into labour. Her mother-in-law Leela, a midwife, was with her. She gave birth, helped by Leela and the doctor. When the train arrived at Churchgate, she was taken to the hospital.

8216;8216;A girl selling wafers offered her dupatta to wrap my daughter,8217;8217; Shobha says, pointing to a bundle of cloth. 8216;8216;She even escorted us to the hospital, leaving her business for the day.8217;8217;

Hospital Superintendent Sadhana Tayede says: 8216;8216;As a member of the medical fraternity, I would like to thank the doctor who supervised the delivery. Given the unhealthy conditions of delivery, we plan to keep the patient under observation for a week. Shobha is also anaemic. But both mother and baby are doing fine.8217;8217;

Resident Medical Officer Vijaya Chauhan says: 8216;8216;We believe that a doctor named Seema Bagade helped Shobha. We have no other information on her. But her timely intervention was commendable.8221;

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Shobha said she will soon be back to work at the flower market at Nallasopara. 8216;8216;I worked till Wednesday evening at the market, went home and cooked dinner for my husband and five-year-old daughter. Why would things be any different now?8217;8217; But for now, Shobha is enjoying all the fuss over her baby girl. 8216;8216;She is so smitten by all the attention, she might just decide to come in next year to have a baby again!8217;8217; said the doctor attending on her. Asked what she would tell her child about the stroke of fame she brought along with TV crews and lensmen visiting, she says: 8216;8216;Congratulations!8217;8217;