Indian Writing

…a family member has cancer. You learn to be organised. You plan your time. You learn new skills. You become more self-aware than you ever were… Pankaj Mehra describes the many ways in which one learns to cope.

In a year’s time I have learnt to be more practical or, at any rate, more street-smart. I know where I can get cheaper medicines, and how and when to bargain while shopping. I am also learning how to save because now every penny counts for us. And we have to be very careful that Sadhika doesn’t get hurt. “Save Infection, Save Life,” the doctors have told us many times. It means she can’t play as hard as other children her age do, but she seems to accept it. In fact, she is quite used to her medical regimen, the painful injections and the bitter medicines. Sometimes she plays ‘Blood Test’ and tries to take her brother’s blood samples, her eyes twinkling mischievously. She doesn’t complain when we take her for a check-up and injections every Monday. Her medicines are expensive, costing as much as Rs 300 per dose. Sometimes she vomits it all out. I don’t want to admit it, but though I hate it, I do find myself tallying up the monetary loss.

Does she really understand what she is going through? This angel of mine doesn’t know how fragile her life is — that anything can happen to her anytime. But we are determined to fight till the end, and we know that we will emerge victorious. I will leave no stone unturned for my little girl.

I am trying these days to learn how to use the Internet as I want to find out about the Bone Marrow Bank in Australia. I did finally manage to create an email-id for Sadhika…