CHENNAI : On Wednesday, when two doctors wore masks and wrapped themselves in sterile gowns, there was an unusual silence in the operation theatre at the GG Hospital. For most of the staff who have been working in the hospital for nearly two decades, it was as if someone had just turned the clock back to August 1990, when Dr Kamala Selvaraj was listening to the Ganesha stotram while holding a scalpel in her hand to cut open a woman's stomach and pull out South India's first test-tube baby. Almost every thing was the same on Wednesday, except that this time, Dr Kamala was assisting her daughter Dr Priya Selvaraj, who was helping a 29-year-old woman deliver the first baby to be born from a frozen oocyte (egg).

"I was extremely nervous. I decided to stay focused and forget all the attention that was being paid. I have never seen the theatre so silent ever. When I pulled out the baby, I saw it was a boy. He wailed out loud. The first thing I checked was the hands, legs, fingers and the toes. In fact Then I waited for the neonatologist to declare the baby healthy while doctors assisted me in sewing the incision we had made on the mother," said Dr Priya Selvaraj.

The neonataologists weighed the baby: it was 2.5 kg. They declared 8 and 9 out of 10 as the APGAR score for the newborn. The score is a simple and repeatable method used to asses the health of the newborn with five criterias - appearance, pulse, grimace, activity and respiration. "There was applause in the theatre and cameras did not stop flashing for a while," Dr Priya Selvaraj said.

During a briefing after the surgery , Dr Kamala said, "We have once again given hope to a lot of women who crave to become mothers. In a few days, the first test tube baby of South India will be 18 years old, an adult who can exercise her franchise. We wish her and this baby a long, healthy life."