Vidya Liselotte Sundberg’s albums will find tangible expression at a unique concert in Pune and Mumbai from next month on.

When they say the best songs come from a deep sense of pain and loss they could well be talking of Vidya Liselotte Sundberg. Born in Pune and adopted at three months by Swedish parents, she grew up in Gavle, Sweden. Her journey to becoming a jazz singer was one phase of her life. The next began when she set out to find her biological mother, equipped with something she was given at the age of 10 to 15 – a letter left for her by her biological mother before she relinquished her at an orphanage here.

Her adoptive parents had divorced, enhancing her vulnerability, but with the support of her Swedish partner and her son Vidya began her quest. It took many visits to India, herculean efforts, time and patience but at the age of 39 she finally traced her biological mother, filling all the blanks she had grappled with in her life. It also perhaps fortified her for the losses that lay ahead—of losing two mothers, both her biological and adoptive one, in the space of four years. This was when she turned completely to her music for answers—and they came rushing in taking the form of lyrics and songs that only a broken heart can feel and create. Today these songs have been strung together to form the basis of both her second and third albums—Papillon and Adi Shakti and will find tangible expression at a unique concert that Vidya has planned in Pune and Mumbai next month on, where she will weave in her life story within each number on stage.

Vidya went to London and started working on her album AdiShakti, inspired by the Adi Shakti mantra.

“Life has taken me on a rollercoaster. After some very fulfilling years with my biological mother I lost her. I returned to Gavle, where I had grown up. Covid struck and I started to spend more time with my music. I then learnt that my Swedish mother had cancer and my focus shifted to her. She died in 2022, one week after my second album—Papillon—was released. The very next day after her death this poem came up inside me, that I think I had been carrying for many years. It was Rumi’s—‘Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there…’,” recalls Vidya, who then went to London and started working on her album AdiShakti, inspired by the Adi Shakti mantra. The album was released in May this year.

The Egg

A story of extraction, exploitation and opportunity

A single cell.

A global business worth billions.

MOSCOW, Dec 8 (Reuters) - The lower house of the Russian parliament on Thursday passed in the second and third readings a bill that bans foreigners from using Russian surrogate mothers.

In addition, a child born by a surrogate mother in Russia would automatically be given Russian citizenship. Couples where one of the spouses is a Russian citizen will still be able to use Russian surrogate mothers.

Paid surrogacy is legal in Russia, but the practice has been criticised by religious groups as commercializing the birth of children. read more

Speaker of the State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin said that the decision to ban surrogacy in Russia was taken in order to protect Russian children. read more

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Beginnings

Mrs. Saroj Sood got interested in adoptions after hearing about her own family adoption. This type of family arrangement disturbed her and she thought that why deprive him/her of his/her very own family when there are so many children in the orphanages waiting for a family? Mrs. Sood managed to convince a very close family friend who was the next one who wanted to adopt his brother and sister-in-law’s child who was yet to be born. She counselled them and succeeded in persuading them not to deprive a child of his/her very own family. They adopted a three-year-old girl from one of the ashrams in Lucknow. Another friend’s sister was based in Lucknow and helped them in completing the legal formalities. That was the informal beginning in the year 1963.

Then a friend and her husband wished to adopt an Indian child and in 1966 the wish turned into reality in New Delhi. Thus, this was the first Inter Country adoption. She continued to freelance along with the Missionaries of Charity and worked with helping families adopt children. In 1972, Mrs. Sood met the late Smt. Ashoka Gupta who encouraged to start an organization for this specialized work.

Thus, seven like-minded people registered “The Indian Society for Sponsorship and Adoption” on the 16th of December 1975. Our Founding members were Mrs. Ashoka Gupta – President, Dr. (Mrs) Chinam Gopinath – Vice President, Mrs. Saroj Sood – Secretary, Mr. Raveen Arora – Treasurer, Mr. Indu Bhushan De – Legal Adviser, Mrs. Dhun D. Adenwalla – Member, Mrs. Perin S. Aibara – Member.

As per reports, resident of Gandhi Nagar area, Rahul’s wife died leaving a four-year-old daughter Riya behind.

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Police arrested a couple and rescued an abducted four-year-old girl after tracing their location in Byavara.

The child was abducted by the couple on Thursday and primary questioning from them suggested that they had abducted the child to adopt her, police officials said. As per reports, resident of Gandhi Nagar area, Rahul’s wife died leaving a four-year-old daughter Riya behind.

The child was taken care of by her grandparents who often used to leave her with their neighbours Pawan Verma and his wife Champa who were childless.

On Thursday, the child’s grandparents approached police and claimed that Riya was missing. They raised suspicion on Pawan and his wife for abducting the child as they often used to take her with them. Police called Pawan on his mobile phone but he claimed that he was in Indore with his wife.

The Karnataka High Court has held that in cases where a child is born as a result of an alleged rape, the biological mother can give the child up for adoption without the consent of the rape-accused biological father. The consent of the biological father in such circumstances is "both inconsequential and immaterial," the Court said.

The Court was hearing a Writ Petition seeking the quashment of the decision of the Sub Registrar rejecting the application for registration of the adoption deed on the ground that the application is incomplete as the biological father of the child to be adopted was not mentioned as an executing party. The issue before the Court was whether the consent of the biological father of a child born out of rape who is also the accused in the rape case is required, in addition to the consent already provided by the minor victim mother and her guardian, for the purpose of giving the child up for adoption.

A Single-Judge Bench of Justice Hemant Chandangoudar held, "[T]he consent of the rape-accused biological father of the child is both inconsequential and immaterial. The adoption of the subject child herein as per the Irrevocable Adoption Deed dated 11.11.2024 is in full compliance with the provisions of the JJ Act, 2015, the Rules, 2016, and the Regulations, 2017."

The lead Petitioner in the case was a Muslim minor, who is a victim of rape and the biological mother of the child. She was before the Court with her mother and a Muslim married couple, the prospective adoptive parents. The biological father of the child, who is the rape accused, is currently in judicial custody awaiting trial and was not impleaded as a party in the present petition.

The minor and her mother submitted that that they were in dire financial distress and unable to provide basic necessities or ensure the overall development of the child. The married couple, who have no children, expressed their willingness to adopt the child and consequently executed an Irrevocable Adoption Deed.

An 'unusually unpleasant and disgusting view of humanity', assesses expert.

"Nice little girl - not noticeably dark".

"This last one is ok because she is light".

That is the message in letters from the adoption agency AC Børnehjælp in the 1980s about children from Lebanon.

Actor, singer and theatre maker Joy Wielkens has a father wound: she grew up without her father and only met him years later. That turned out differently than she had hoped. 

“In 2011 I made a performance about my father:  Papa was a rollin'… nobody. It was my third solo after  Negra in 2009 about the search for my black identity. They were all autobiographical performances, but the last one went a step further. It was about my fatherless youth, but there was also a kind of hope in it: that my father might be in the audience one day and come to me afterwards.”

No regrets

“That never happened, but I did find him and meet him a year later, in 2012. The first time I saw him, under the supervision of a social worker, was a disappointment. I don’t regret meeting my father, but it didn’t go as I had hoped and it certainly wasn’t the perfect picture. I thought he was a horrible man. He only talked about himself and the highlights of his life.”

As the war on reproductive rights rages on, I can’t help but think of the battleground that both sides of the aisle have already conceded, the demilitarized zone of the reproductive rights conflict: adoption.

November is National Adoption Awareness Month, typically filled with heartwarming stories of children finding their “forever families.” Judges often refer to adoption proceedings as “the happiest day in court,” while politicians view it as a universally agreeable policy solution to unplanned pregnancies. But adoption is not the neutral area that we unquestioningly believe it to be—especially not for those like me, who, at 22 years old in my Indiana hometown, sat in panicked disbelief, staring at two pink lines that would alter the course of my life forever.

Fresh out of college, with no support from my baby’s father and still relying on my parents, I was thrust into a world of limited options and impossible choices. With abortion no longer an option and single motherhood feeling insurmountable and shameful under the weight of a conservative and religious mental framework, I turned to adoption.

Momentarily, I felt relief, believing it would solve my “problem” and maybe even redeem me from the perceived sin of premarital sex. Little did I know that choosing what society labels “the loving option” would expose me to an unregulated industry rife with predation.

Gago = Head of Cabinet DG EMPL

Selmayr = Head of Cabinet DG JUSTICE

Le Bail = Director General DG JUSTICE

Mordue = Head of Cabinet DG ENLARGEMENTT (NEAR)

Korte = Director General (acting) DG ENLARGEMENT/NEAR