It had to be told

I met someone today, an acquaintance of sorts. I had not met her for a long time and of course in the course of conversation I told her about old Mr Hodgkin. Imagine my utter surprise when her whole demeanour changed and she held both my hands and with almost teary years told me how sorry she was. It was almost as she was presenting her condolences. I beat a quick retreat! Gosh it was eerie! On the way back in my famous three wheeler I did not pick my book up as usual but let my thoughts run wild. Why is it that certain medical conditions entail almost bizarre reactions. If you say cancer people think death; id you say AIDS people think loose character.  Such are social stigmasI refuse this kind of reactions and will shun anyone who proffers them. I do get phone calls when I realise people are surprised at the matter of factness with which I answer as I would if Ranjan had had flu or any other ailment. This I know is the only way we will come out of it. Whatever the outcome, I want our lives to be flooded with good energies and laughter! Anything else is verboten!

As I have promised to be honest to a fault in this blog, I have to share something that happened to me a few years back. I think catharsis is needed here if I truly want to walk the talk. This must have been around 2007. I found a white patch of my inner arm and showed it to my doc who initially thought it was some fungus kind of a thing and gave me some ointment to apply. But the patch refused to go away. Finally my doc persuaded me to have a biopsy and it turned out to be Hansen's disease better known as leprosy. I was mortified. I had visions of the Middle Ages and bells and white crosses. I refused to share it with anyone and withdrew in a shell till I got an all clear 8 months later. What a great and relieving feeling to have it our in the open. A true cleansing process for me. I am sure that if I had taken it in my stride, as leprosy is a bacteria much like TB I would saved myself and my family a lot of pain and maybe we would have healed quicker as I would have been free of negativity.

One cannot expect to have a life free of any problem. Time and again certain diseases are given a larger than life status that they do not deserve. Is it the medical fraternity who is to blame or the society. A question that begs to be answered. But one thing is certain: a positive attitude that minimises any problem is bound to help in healing.

That is the way I want to look at Ranjan's cancer. A minor irritant that has come our way and that we will deal with as best we can. And rather then zeroing on the negative effects we will count the positive ones and there are many. The biggest one is the bonding of us as a couple and as a family. Next is the abundance of love we have got from the world over. Then comes friendships that have been cemented, friendships that would have just passed us by had this fellow not landed in our lives. Come to think of it there has been far more good things than bad ones!