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Mukta Dhond, 46, lives in Mumbai and says she couldn’t drive because her car used to be her home. She used to sleep in the car. She is a passionate media professional, who is a creative producer of television shows on general entertainment channels. Mukta is also a trustee at Bal Asha Trust, an adoption agency. She found Agastya there.
She says, “Somewhere around 37 years of age I was considering adoption. I had frozen my eggs because I was very clear that I wanted to be a mother. But the practicality of single parenting is the double responsibility of doing everything on your own. So, I got a dog to see whether I will be able to manage on my own.”
After two years she applied for adoption and she says, “Thanks to Maneka Gandhi (member of Lok Sabha) who gave single women over 40 years of age priority in the adoption process. So, I got my baby sooner than expected.”
He was seven months old when she found him and got him one month after all the paperwork. “It suddenly struck me that I have turned into a parent overnight,” she says.
She also trained her jumping Labrador, Bobby, to be around Agastya. She told her friends to give her unwashed baby clothes so they smell of a baby and put it on a doll, so Bobby could get used to having Agastya in the same house. She says, “Neither of them have hurt each other in the seven years that they’ve been here. Bobby is nine and Agastya is seven.”
Agastya knows he is adopted by Bal Asha Trust and it is his first home. Mukta says it’s a beautiful feeling to have a baby. “There is no difference between adopting one and conceiving one. The baby is yours. The attachment doesn’t take time, the moment the child starts speaking, your bond starts right there.”
