Cancer Diaries — A Silver Lining?

I am writing this from the viewpoint of a person who is seeing a loved one suffering from this disease. All the thoughts here are purely personal and reflect my state of mind. 

Of all the diseases in the world, cancer may be one of the most glamourised ones (maybe after AIDS). There are many movies, books and forums about it and countless celebrities and foundations talk about it. You would have come across it in some form or the other, shed a tear and then moved on.

I did the same until the time I came to know that my mom suffered from cancer. She was first diagnosed with the disease around 9 years back, got treated, became well, until it raised its ugly head again 4 years back in a meaner way. She is now undergoing treatment and like my brother says, “she is like a ticking time-bomb”.

Cancer is a painful disease both for the person as well as the loved ones around them. Also, it is a very expensive disease. You may consider it to be a heartless thing to say when one is being all emotional about it. But the truth is when one starts spending the money, all emotions run out and one is just left wondering how to get the money for the next chemo cycle.

Let me focus my thoughts today on the silver lining of cancer, because apparently every cloud has one. Cancer does help to really understand how much a loved one actually loves you. Let me illustrate this by an example. As a child, I used to think that my parents were just parents. They had had an arranged marriage, were caught up in raising 2 children and were never great giver of gifts. I never imagined them being the lovey-dovey sort or having a DDLJ moment. But, now I feel that my parents story has the potential to be etched in the eons of time as one of the greatest love stories — right next to Romeo and Juliet.

My dad is an old gentleman and a patient one at that. He religiously accompanies my mom to her chemo every week, sits with her and stares at the medicine. He never sleeps during the 8-9 hour long sessions (i must confess even I slept off as there was nothing to do and how long can one stare at the bottle). My mom is not supposed to eat any outside food and most of the times is too weak to cook. Hence, my dad has taken up the position of full-time chef at home. When the chemo makes my mom’s taste buds go all awry, he patiently hears her crib about his cooking. They do have their share of fights, but at the end of the day, they provide each other with the much-needed support that they require. Together, they feel (and I hope) that they will defeat this disease the second time around as well.

Bye bye 2014!

2014 has gone and I am not sad to see it go. It was an uneventful year as in nothing really happened. There were some talks about some things happening, but nothing actually culminated. So quite blah!
And for this precise reason, I became extremely pissed off, when Facebook did the whole my year was good thing. And believe you me, there was nothing on my post, as I said nothing happened. So I felt happy, when they had to apologise, because come on, no algo can tell me how good or bad my year was.
New year resolutions - to try to become fit and the first 2 days have been kind of a downer. But the one good thing that has happened is I have started playing Quizup. And yesterday I was first in India in Sex and the City (drumroll!!!). Made my evening:). 

The glass of water

So, we all know about the question - whether the glass is half empty or half full? When I was young, I used to look people in the eye and say that obviously, the glass is half full. Why would anyone say otherwise? No one can be a pessimist. You have to be an optimist to win.
But now, as I grow wiser (am refraining from using the other word), I have realized that I am one of those who see that the glass is half empty. And more than that, I would probably not even drink from it, thinking about what I will do when it is empty. I am a hard-core pessimist and am not afraid to say it.
But, being a pessimist is not an easy thing to be. You need to have the knack to find a dark cloud in every silver lining. And I can say that with some authority that I have managed to develop this knack. As a pessimist, I am extremely cautious of everything, so probably that works in my favour:)
This pessimist thing is a great deal of work, trying to find an obstacle everywhere. I should probably just start looking at the glass and water and not read too much into it. I can always fill up the glass again.
P.S. This time I hope I am back for good:)

Limerick Time

My first attempt:

I sat and waited for my plane

Which was delayed due to the rain

Why not complete my work I thought

But went on to read the book I bought

Now to the boss who will explain?

The Tall and Short of It

The Europeans are tall people. Well, not all of them. But the majority of them are. And those who know me know that I am a little bit vertically challenged (This was the title given to me in my IIMA Section A POTY Awards! I was indignant but that is a story for another time.)
Coming back to the topic on hand, I had dreams to meet some good French students (ooh laa laa!) and make them my BFFs. So, when the institute told us that they have some kind of Tandem program for us in order to facilitate our meeting the firangs, I was all ecstatic and immediately signed up for it.
I was assigned a French girl and immediately I had visions of roaming around the streets of Paris, soaking in the French culture and being all Parisian (don't get wrong ideas). Keeping this mind, I sent a mail introducing myself and asking her to do the same. She told me she had only recently come to Paris. My Parisian dreams were shattered, but then she said she was from Bourdeaux. I envisioned myself lazing in the vineyards of Bourdeaux, being ohh so graceful and elegant, and my plans were back on track.
Then she told me that she was a first year student, which according to my calculations made her about 19 or 20 years old. I am in the wrong side of 20 and had just overcome my quarter life crisis. But what the heck, what has age to do with friendship?
Keeping all this aside, I decided to meet her. I mailed her and asked her how would I recognise her in the school courtyard. She replied back " I am blonde, fair, Tall, actually the tallest measuring over 180 cm and I wear heels, so you can't miss me. What about you?" ON reading this, my heart skipped a beat. I would like like, actually I would not be visible next to her. But still, I replied "I am short, actually very short, dark and don't wear heels. I will find you".
I was already two strikes down. I wasn't entirely sure if I could find a way out of the third one. I went out and saw her. She came up to my shoulder as she was sitting. A sweet girl. But I am not entirely sure if she is up to be my BFF. Call me a racist, but she was too tall for it:)

Eurotrip chronicles

My other blog failed to take off. Partly because I am too lazy. And also because this gentleman laughed at my idea. And since I thought that he did have much more sense in the blogging department, I did not write. It is fun to shift the blame on others!! No offense.
I am done with my euro trip. Actually I was almost done with it the first week of November itself. I have realised I don't like to travel (future consultant, really?) on a shoestring budget (there is hope!). I have been to 11 countries, and towards the end everything appeared the same to me. Being a vegetarian (non-ova) doesn't help in this a lot as well.
The education system here reminds me of my class X CBSE days. I am cramming stuff like definitions and 15 points of social marketing. Who would have thought that MBA requires cramming? I just envisioned it to be exams full of writing globe. But, it happens!
Friends made, not many. Lessons learnt, too many. Will elaborate many of those in subsequent posts.
But I am proud of myself for living in a foreign country, with people speaking a foreign language and navigating through simple day to day activities like shopping in French supermarkets, booking train tickets and opening a bank account. I am a big girl now:)

I don't know what to say

Each time I take a long break, I promise myself that I will write more often and then I am back to my old ways. I don't even have any excuses anymore apart from the fact that I am plain lazy.
IInd year in IIMA is exactly the opposite of the I year. I have nothing to do (which is technically wrong; I do nothing). I have been watching movies and series ( Gossip Girl is awesome!) and generally chilling out. What plans I had- I will reach the stars and change the world. I will read books and learn French. I joined yoga and left it (in my defence the teacher was not very encouraging). Billions of Bilious Blue BlisteringBarnacles! Nothing I did. But not all is lost. I have been busy getting my French Visa. As you all I am going to Paris (yay!). It has always been my dream to go abroad. My dad had told me that he was taking me to California when I was in the 6th standard. I was so excited, I read about American culture, their accent, saw their movies and listened to their songs. But alas, the plan did not materialize. Since then I have been waiting for the day when I go abroad.
Now that I am actually going, it has dawned on me that getting a visa is a very difficult process. Also it is pretty expensive. I needed to search everywhere to get the required information.
So the good samaritan that I am, I came up with the idea of posting it all on a blog. It will give students all the info which they require. Apart from that it will also allow me to document my first international journey. I hope that I am able to work on this project (keeping my fingers crossed).
Let the journey begin:)