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The side
effects of chemotherapy are telling-hair loss being the most obvious.
But Anup Kumar, 53, shows none of the visible scars that the treatment
of a debilitating disease can leave you with. Here's a survivor, among
the 10 per cent of victims who battle cancer and continue living life
with all its ambiguities. In January 2000, he was given four months to
live. "My first thought was whether I could live for 121 days,"
says Kumar. It's more than two years since. He's back to work-and even
sports a bristly beard.
 "I
searched for joy in cancer," says Kumar with hard-to-believe earnestness.
The post-graduate in nuclear physics from Delhi University who has spent
most of his working career in advertising agencies found it in his nicotine
air-free home (he smoked 30-40 cigarettes a day earlier), from the knowledge
of having invested his affections in the right people, in the time spent
seeking solace in chanting Buddhist shlokas and meditating instead of
long hours in office and in writing "live"-at his wife Amrita's
suggestion-The Joy of Cancer (Rupa).
"Thinking positive from the day of diagnosis helped," says
Kumar, "and in working towards achieving mind-body continuum."
In his intimately autobiographical "book of hope", which he
initially wrote as a diary, Kumar shares the experiences of fighting his
personal war against lung cancer with a seven-point battle plan. Along
with his experiences, he includes a compendium of myths linked to the
degenerative disease, side-effects of various kinds of treatments and
new therapies available, a list of cancer societies and websites and cancer
terminology.
When Kumar was diagnosed with lung cancer, he had just lost his job
but was planning for another one, oblivious to the cancer cells gnawing
into his lifespan. The knowledge of the disease has made future-planning
difficult, besides leaving "big holes in my pocket"-the treatment
cost Rs 12 lakh over a period of six months. "Cancer survival is
about living each day as it comes," he says. Despite the odds, Kumar
has chosen to live it with joy. He's even got himself a new job.
-Mridula Chettri Singh
 
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CURRENT
ISSUE AUGUST 19, 2002
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