B.RAMAN
As a cancer patient myself since September,2009, I
feel the urge to share with my readers my thoughts after seeing the We The
People discussion on cancer anchored by
Barkha Dutt, of NDTV, on the night of July 8,2012.
It had Barkha’s brilliant professional touch. She
needs to be complimented for keeping it in the heart-to-heart chat format and
avoiding the usual format of an elitist debate.
Cancer, like other serious diseases, is a great
leveller.
It doesn’t make a distinction between the rich and
the poor, between the young and the old, between men and women.
When it strikes, it strikes brutally.
Barkha’s WTP chat brought this out beautifully.
There were many moving moments during the one hour
the chat lasted.
Like for example, when Pranav Arora, a young boy of
16, laughingly explained how he had forgotten his cancer.
Like for example, when a charming lady laughed and
laughed---naturally and spontaneously and not compulsively--- when talking of
her reaction to cancer and of her process of recovery.
Like for example, when a man who is bravely trying
to recover his voice after having lost it due to throat cancer, valiantly tried
to share his experiences with the viewers.
There were many other such moments of indescribable beauty and grandeur.
When you see others heartily laughing, your natural
inclination is to join them in laughing.
When I saw the big and enchanting smile of the
young boy or the uproarious laughter of the charming lady, my reaction was not
to join them in their smile and laughter.
It was to shed tears and cry.
Cry over the fact that these people are able to
take their cancer in their stride.
Cry over the fact that these people have not
allowed cancer to become a tragedy in their lives.
Cry over the fact that these people have not
allowed their cancer to become the end of their world.
Cry over the fact that these people are handling
their cancer with such detachment.
It requires human spirit of a tremendous order to
develop such an attitude to a dreaded disease. Once you develop that attitude,
the dread vanishes.
These people may not have as yet totally conquered
cancer.
But they have vanquished the dread of cancer.
They have not meekly submitted to their pain.
They are defiantly staring at their pain in its
face and have not allowed it to change the way they live, smile and laugh.
Let us salute them.
Let us salute Yuvraj Singh for not letting himself
be overwhelmed physically and mentally by his cancer and for not letting his
cancer distort his image and vision of himself and the world.
Let us salute Yuvi too for coming forward to share
his pain,tears, smile and laughter with others recovering from the blow of
cancer.
Let us salute Barkha and her team for giving a
movingly human touch to the chat.
I have always believed in sharing.
I share readily everything with others---my joys,
my sorrows, my pain, my pleasure.
When you so share, you rise sky high and feel a
colossus in your mind.
We saw many colossuses last night in Barkha’s
programme.
It was more than a programme.
It was a humanising experience.
( The writer has been under treatment since 2009
for a metastasised cancer of the urinary tract and nearby bones and lymphnodes.
Pl. see, if you wish, his article on his cancer titled Living & Sleeping
With My Cancer at
