I just had a conversation with a good friend of mine. The conversation made me reminiscent of many things.
5 years ago, we both had joined the same company, fresh out of college. We hit it off instantly and there started our friendship. We shared many a good time, as room mates in Mysore and Pune. We both got transferred to Bangalore at a later point of time. We even quit the company at the same time!
And although we started to work in different companies, we stayed in touch over phone.
One evening, a year ago, my friend calls me up with some grave news.
He had been diagnosed with cancer.
I was shocked hearing the news. I couldn't believe it and urged him to take a second opinion. But it was confirmed.
What was thought to be an injury from an accident was in fact a tumor in the thigh.
After the initial diagnosis, his sister and brother-in-law, both being doctors, whisked him away to Mumbai to consult with a leading doctor there. The doctor there too confirmed their worst fears. His family was aghast.
Even at that time, my friend consoled his family along with his sister, saying it was going to be alright, when it should have been the other way around.
It was just the beginning of a torrid time.
The doctors advised rigorous chemotherapy sessions to combat the cancer. My friend continued to stay in Mumbai, alone, away from home to undergo the treatment.
My friend is a true fighter. He did not disclose his condition to anyone, barring a few close friends, me being one. He did not want sympathy nor did he ask for money.
When you are down on the ground, the true friends are the ones who will offer their hand to help you up. My friend found this out the hard way. Few close friends who he thought would be beside him did not even turn up to visit him (including his girlfriend who left him once she got the news), while people who he didn't know all that well offered unconditional support. While his boss at work assured him that his job would be safe and sanctioned any number of leaves that he needed, our heart strings were tugged at and his eyes welled up when he mentioned some unknown strangers had come to donate blood to him for some platelets that was needed.
We were there for him, of course, should he need us for anything
Sanketh, my friend whom I have been referring to, came back to Bangalore to continue his treatment. His dad, sis and himself took loans to pay for the treatment. It was agonizing to get injected with the chemical medicine, that spread throughout the body. The tumor couldn't be operated and removed as there was a risk of relapse. The chemotherapy was the only effective treatment to ensure that all the cancer cells were killed.
Days went by. When I met him while he was being treated, he was a thin, frail version of his former self. An 85kg bulky bloke that he was, was rendered to a boy who looked like he had reached puberty. The chemo radiation had taken a massive toll on his body, all the hair on his body too dropping off (he recalled how the hair on his head just stuck on to the seat in the airplane he was traveling in en route to Bangalore!). He had lost the sense of taste and was just eating to fill a hungry stomach. And that too was only when he didn't throw up what he ate, the strong medicine making him nauseated.
In all this time, he maintained a calm composure. He would still crack jokes, sometimes on himself. While he still felt hurt by the people who ditched him in his struggle, he was glad he still had his family and few friends alongside him.
In times of despair, your character comes to the fore. And Sanketh chose to fight.
And fight he did, a solid right hook to death.
After a few months his condition improved. The cancer cells were all neutralized, even the ones that had spread to his lungs. The last bit of tumor in his thigh was removed. Although he was under observation for few more days, he had the strength to move about. And what did he do once he was able to move around? He goes to Nandini, a restaurant in his neighborhood and heartily eats his favorite chicken dish and reports to work the very next day. Such was the resolute character. He was tired of sitting at home doing nothing.
While we still laugh at a couple of poor sods who thought his condition was brought about by his drinking and smoking (smoking does increase your chances of cancer, mind you!) habits, we still look back at those trying times when he was more or less on his own, laughing at the cruel twist in tale that life had brought about.
I will be meeting him this Tuesday again. After quite a long time. It would be great to catch up with him once more. I must mention a couple of close friends of mine at this juncture. Both of them are fighting bitter, traumatic divorce cases, both standing tall, although more or less alone in a truer sense in their fight. These folks are an inspiration, to me at least, to overcome any obstacle in life, with grit and valor and the same spirit.
To Sanketh and the two others, thank you for showing me You Can. I am glad to have you people as my friends.
5 years ago, we both had joined the same company, fresh out of college. We hit it off instantly and there started our friendship. We shared many a good time, as room mates in Mysore and Pune. We both got transferred to Bangalore at a later point of time. We even quit the company at the same time!
And although we started to work in different companies, we stayed in touch over phone.
One evening, a year ago, my friend calls me up with some grave news.
He had been diagnosed with cancer.
I was shocked hearing the news. I couldn't believe it and urged him to take a second opinion. But it was confirmed.
What was thought to be an injury from an accident was in fact a tumor in the thigh.
After the initial diagnosis, his sister and brother-in-law, both being doctors, whisked him away to Mumbai to consult with a leading doctor there. The doctor there too confirmed their worst fears. His family was aghast.
Even at that time, my friend consoled his family along with his sister, saying it was going to be alright, when it should have been the other way around.
It was just the beginning of a torrid time.
The doctors advised rigorous chemotherapy sessions to combat the cancer. My friend continued to stay in Mumbai, alone, away from home to undergo the treatment.
My friend is a true fighter. He did not disclose his condition to anyone, barring a few close friends, me being one. He did not want sympathy nor did he ask for money.
When you are down on the ground, the true friends are the ones who will offer their hand to help you up. My friend found this out the hard way. Few close friends who he thought would be beside him did not even turn up to visit him (including his girlfriend who left him once she got the news), while people who he didn't know all that well offered unconditional support. While his boss at work assured him that his job would be safe and sanctioned any number of leaves that he needed, our heart strings were tugged at and his eyes welled up when he mentioned some unknown strangers had come to donate blood to him for some platelets that was needed.
We were there for him, of course, should he need us for anything
Sanketh, my friend whom I have been referring to, came back to Bangalore to continue his treatment. His dad, sis and himself took loans to pay for the treatment. It was agonizing to get injected with the chemical medicine, that spread throughout the body. The tumor couldn't be operated and removed as there was a risk of relapse. The chemotherapy was the only effective treatment to ensure that all the cancer cells were killed.
Days went by. When I met him while he was being treated, he was a thin, frail version of his former self. An 85kg bulky bloke that he was, was rendered to a boy who looked like he had reached puberty. The chemo radiation had taken a massive toll on his body, all the hair on his body too dropping off (he recalled how the hair on his head just stuck on to the seat in the airplane he was traveling in en route to Bangalore!). He had lost the sense of taste and was just eating to fill a hungry stomach. And that too was only when he didn't throw up what he ate, the strong medicine making him nauseated.
In all this time, he maintained a calm composure. He would still crack jokes, sometimes on himself. While he still felt hurt by the people who ditched him in his struggle, he was glad he still had his family and few friends alongside him.
In times of despair, your character comes to the fore. And Sanketh chose to fight.
And fight he did, a solid right hook to death.
After a few months his condition improved. The cancer cells were all neutralized, even the ones that had spread to his lungs. The last bit of tumor in his thigh was removed. Although he was under observation for few more days, he had the strength to move about. And what did he do once he was able to move around? He goes to Nandini, a restaurant in his neighborhood and heartily eats his favorite chicken dish and reports to work the very next day. Such was the resolute character. He was tired of sitting at home doing nothing.
While we still laugh at a couple of poor sods who thought his condition was brought about by his drinking and smoking (smoking does increase your chances of cancer, mind you!) habits, we still look back at those trying times when he was more or less on his own, laughing at the cruel twist in tale that life had brought about.
I will be meeting him this Tuesday again. After quite a long time. It would be great to catch up with him once more. I must mention a couple of close friends of mine at this juncture. Both of them are fighting bitter, traumatic divorce cases, both standing tall, although more or less alone in a truer sense in their fight. These folks are an inspiration, to me at least, to overcome any obstacle in life, with grit and valor and the same spirit.
To Sanketh and the two others, thank you for showing me You Can. I am glad to have you people as my friends.
