Friday, May 6, 2011

Shadow of Time-Monsoon Story


It is better to say that I started living since July 16th 2001. Though I was born on February 12th 1990. I came to this place (Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya Malampuha, Palakkad(district), Kerala(state) India) on that date. But now I've got to leave. In this eve of departure I don't know what's in mind. I'm pretty sad and nostalgic, but somewhere inside my mind I wish to leave this hell (or heaven? I'm not sure)...But I know one thing, I love this place than my home and there is something that holds me back here. These corridors that sometimes haunts me in my nightmares sometimes comes as the sweetest dream. So now you might have under stood this miniature world of mine is a mixture of sadness and mirth like "Yin Yang". This is a boarding school where we see our parents once in a month(sometimes we do not) and goes home twice a year.But we love to hang up here with our pals and merrymaking gangs playing basketball. Teasing friends, mocking girls And a lot of fun with a little flavor of sad times and a lot of hardships to face.

Navodaya is a cool place. As i told earlier there are sorrows and mirth. Now I'm gonna share a few stories that I wish to shout out.

Now its been about 5 months after I got out of JNV..You might be thinking why it took this long to make my next post. Most of the alumni of my school(Sorry I forgot..The term "Alumni" includes me too) use to say the world out there is really bizarre and everyday is a new experience. I literally understood that. I struggled to write my board exams because of a pain in my left thigh...When it came to the last few exams it grew bigger and I was totally exhausted. Primary diagnostics found it was just a muscle injury. I believed it because as I play Basketball its not surprising to have a muscle injury.Taking a painkiller I sat to write the Maths exam(The 2nd last one).But in the exam hall I was brought to my tears by the extreme pain. Somehow I finished the exam..Then the next day we all went home. Only the guys who opted for computer science were told to return back 4 the exam..I was one among them. But I got only two days in my home(My friends Ajith & Suraj were there with me). Just after 2 days I was admitted in a hospital nearby..There I was treated for hamstring muscle injury for almost a week.My friends all came to see me..But there was tension inside me, because there was one more exam left for me. All my expectations was on it..One day before the Computer Science exam I got temporarily discharged from the hospital and went to school..And I wrote the exam. Now when the results came I'm the topper in that subject. But my aggregate went down.But when I got the result I was not in a mood to think about it. Because the pain in my leg which we all ignored (Not wholly ignored ,but didn't give much care) turned out to be "CANCER". Perosteal Osteosarcoma a sort of Malignant bone cancer. When and how I got this thing known to me?. Its Heavily raining out there right now. Let me take my crutches and get some hot coffee now.

I studied in a boarding school till my XII th class. I told you all those stories.And I told the story till the detection of cancer in brief. Now I'll tell it in detail. And that was my last year in the school. (I passed out in 2008).But when I was about to have my final year board exam I found some pain in my left thigh, I thought it was a muscle injury cause I was a basketball player. But the pain started growing in its intensity and a small growth was felt underneath my skin..I went to the medical consulter in the school she knowing how heavy exercise we had and how hard I play told its nothing more than a muscle injury. My exams started ,but the pain grew ruthlessly. I wrote one exam taking a painkiller injection. But couldn't attempt my Maths exam before that pain swallowed me and I was taken to hospital, where doctors misdiagnosed me of hamstring muscle injury. I was admitted there till my last exam they continued physiotherapy and stuffs. I was broken by then.I was expecting good score in the exam and my plan was to get into IIT (India).I never knew what was about to come.After getting temporary relief from the pain went to Kota(Rajasthan,India) to join IIT JEE coaching there, the pain curbed me again. There I was treated by a physician who also thought it of some muscle injury but he became doubtful after seeing no recovery. He then sent me to a orthopedic doctor, he by seeing just one x-ray called my dad and uncle and send to take me back and get a good treatment ,it could may be cancer or they're gonna loose me. I never accepted it saying I'll stay back and study but that night dad got me a flight ticket and told me to leave but I told him I'll only come if he promise me to take me back after the treatment is over coz getting iit was more than a dream to me. I flew back and after the diagnosis in the hospital I got it sure that it was cancer...Then I had an open biopsy surgery after few days when the result came it was "osteosarcoma in the left femur bone". I searched the Internet and found the cures where "Amputation","Chemotherapy" and stuffs... But there I stood bold.

It's been so long...And it's not a great issue since I don't have regular & curious readers of my blog. Every time I get logged in I swear to me to be a regular blogger and as all the promises I give myself this one also fade out..I've been telling you(I dunno if there's anyone reading this) the life story of mine...It's pretty difficult to narrate all the events since it's been more than a year since I posted my last stuff..So let's cut to the present..I survived Cancer and now I'm in good condition and my life's awesome than ever before..Now the biggest dilemma is the choice of my destiny...hey it's the biggest dilemma of all men (no offense to feminists..So here it goes..To all women too).So sorry for the cliché. So here let me start again...Don't panic I'm not gonna start my life story again..I'm gonna start blogging again.. At least let me hope so.


Monsoon Story> So back to the desk again. It's raining here, listening to "Stan" on iTtunes . Tomorrow leaving for Amma's home. I'm planning to take a few friends with me. We are actually heading for a function/ritual that's been conducted for more than 100 years in the family. It happens every year. I couldn't attend it for the last few years. People at mom's home are kind of "Old school". They conduct almost every religious ceremonies there viz "Sarpa Pooja","Sarpam thullal"(Hey they ain't "Serpent People"),and all those astrological stuffs. Oh yeah I skipped two grand functions: "Ayyapan Vilakku" & "Shrardham". As a kid I loved all those functions, because that was the time when all the cousins from all over the globe get under one roof. And we kids made all kind of nuisance to the elders. Now tomorrows function is "Aaandi oottu". The literal meaning is "Feeding the poor". During the heavy rain in the olden days the farmers all around Kerala suffered a lot of the havoc. So all the rich(And kind) families used to feed all the suffering people, they where given full fledged lunch and enough grains to survive. My granny used to tell me all those stories of hundreds of people who gather around my ancestral home and about the whole family reunion that happens on the occasion . Also Amma use to tell all those times when she was a kid. She used to watch the gathering down through the old window with my aunts and see the suffering faces. Even people from far away places came. They spread their clothes, "Mundu" the one that they wear on the floor and put two huge plantain leaves and our servants bring rice and pour it like water on them, at the same time food was served to the family members inside the house. They never eat that right away but fold the cloth with the rice inside and take it with them on their head. And she described the scene of people leaving with these huge baggages, that cooked rice was enough for them for 2 or 3 days. Now the function is merely for namesake. The number of such people who come for this is reduced. And the number of family members attending this as she says :"People enough for a marriage function" is now diminished.Whatever, tomorrow I'm gonna go and see how far the literal meaning of the word "Aandi oottu" is valid. It's now time for me to sleep. So I'll get to you after the function.

The last time told you that I'll give you details about the trip that I had to my mom's place. You know I'm a lazy person. So in a nutshell the whole trip was awesome. We had a gala time. And my prejudice was right(That thing happens rarely) there where very few people from the family, around 50. And I didn't see any poor people there, ofcourse it can be my mistake. But either way the function seemed awesome to me, especially the "Payasam". All my buddies loved the feast. One guy even yelled at us to stop our vehicle at the gate before leaving to get back and get some more "Payasam".So that's it. Now I'll get back with more soon.Take care.
- Bunuval, Palakkad,Kerala,India

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