It has been two years since Bhagyalakshmi and her husband T Appala Raju lost both their daughters in the tragic Godavari boat accident in Andhra Pradesh on September 15, 2019. On the exact same date, two years later, Bhagyalakshmi gave birth to twin girls. "We are so happy and blessed. It's all god's grace," a beaming Bhagyalakshmi told PTI.
Appala Raju's mother was also killed in the accident when she, along with her granddaughters, was on her way to the Rama temple in Bhadrachalam. The tourist boat Royal Vasishta, which was ferrying 77 passengers through the Papikondalu, capsized near Kachuluru. While 26 tourists were rescued by residents of a nearby village, nearly 50 people lost their lives. Bhagyalakshmi and Appala Raju’s daughters, who were among the victims, were of ages one and three years at the time, according to the Times of India.
According to PTI, Bhagyalakshmi and her husband, an employee in a glass manufacturing unit, approached a fertility centre in the city last year. Delayed by the pandemic, they had the twin daughters through IVF procedure (in vitro fertilization). Bhagyalakshmi delivered the babies on September 15, 2021. The twins weighed 1.9 kg and 1.6 kg and were healthy.
"We did not expect twins, but it's a real blessing," Bhagyalakshmi told PTI. Dr Sudha Padmasree, a fertility expert who worked with the couple, said the case was taken up as a challenge and priority.
According to ToI, the couple had also planned to go on the boat trip but cancelled their plans at the last minute. Their daughters, however, went on the trip, accompanied by their relatives. More than a month after the accident, the boat was pulled out from the river after sustained efforts by a team of workers. Several boats, rafts, and hundreds of iron cable and hooks were used, and many expert swimmers and scuba divers were engaged, to retrieve the sunken boat and to find the missing bodies of victims.
With PTI inputs