The Crab

It was a restless night and the reason for it being so was more than one. The day was hectic and in the normal sense I should have just dozed off, but well that did not happen. I was at my cousin Veena’s place in Bangalore and being the first night there, the bed was new and hence it took me a while to adjust. The second reason could be that my left shoulder was giving me pain thanks to my spondylosis and thus I was tossing and turning in bed unable to catch a wink and it was precisely then that my phone rang. The time was only 1.30a.m., however the call did not surprise me. It seemed as if I was expecting the same and hence my restlessness. The name that flashed on the screen was the name I had expected. Thus even before attending the call, I knew what the news would be. For one thing no one wakes you up that early in the morning/night to have a chat with you or to convey news regarding sweet nothings unless you are in that stage of your life when “ROMANCE” is in full bloom. The news had to be serious and well it could not have got more serious. Unnikrishnan a long time associate/help/almost a peripheral family member had called it a day. It was his brother in law giving me the news. He had succumbed to the crab that was otherwise known as Cancer.
He was 51years old and until a year ago had lead a hectic life. A life which saw a meteoric rise in his social standing and also the urge to achieve and acquire all that was considered the norm in today’s world. He seemed to be in a hurry and we always wondered why he was rushing. Little did we realize that he had to finish his responsibilities within a specific period? Death is definitely the only certainty in all our lives, however being human we plan and execute as if our lives are everlasting. May be Unnikrishnan was more aware that he would have an early call and thus his hurry. Anyway he had touched our family’s life like he had so many lives in Chennai. We were totally in the know of his illness and had in our own way contributed to ease his difficulties. Unnikrishnan was the latest in the long list of so many friends and acquaintances who had been the victim of the crab. It has been bothering me for a long time the rise in the number of people who have been afflicted by this condition which not only eats your body but also without doubt eats at everything else you have. This disease and its treatment make one’s life so traumatic and unbearable that I have so often wondered as to which was worse, the condition or its treatment.
Being the month of September, a month related to Cancer, I had attended a meeting where a leading Oncologist gave a lecture. His opening remark was that Cancer was the only condition where the blame for acquiring can only be put on one’s own self. No outside element was involved and thus he said that it was within a person to lead the right kind of life and by doing so stay away from the radar of the Cancer. I like all the attendees at the meeting realized that it this was easier said than done. The awareness of the don’ts regarding this condition with the exception of using tobacco and alcohol is so poor that you wonder as to how a layman will ever get to know how he should lead his life. AIDS which came into existence only in the last three decades has surpassed Cancer when it comes to awareness. The reason could well be the “colourful” manner in which it is transmitted.
Frankly no person would do anything stupid to become a victim of Cancer. Having said that, I realize that you do not have to knowingly do anything stupid, because there are a hundred things around you including the air you breathe that could well be the cause for the condition. Doctors advocate you to refrain from alcohol and tobacco. I agree that these two are the major wreckers but at the same time I feel that they alone cannot cause all the trouble. May be they could if you drown yourself in any one of them. Lung cancer is attributed to smoking and liver cirrhosis to alcohol. However I can in my own sphere mention names of people who have succumbed to both these conditions without being a smoker and or an alcoholic. How do you explain these deaths?? So what precautions are the doctors talking about? They could as well say that passive smoking could be the cause of lung cancer; however can passive drinking be the cause of liver cancer?? The more one delves into the conditions that cause cancer, the more one is dumbfounded and totally at a loss for words. Doctors recommend inclusion of five servings of vegetables and fruits in one’s diet, but on the other hand they say that the pesticide and preservatives used to grow and store them could well bring about cancer. With this being the case how does a layman go about leading his life? Can each of us afford to have a vegetable garden and a farm where in we grow all our dietary requirements? Is it possible in this 21st Century to lead the lives our forefathers lived a Millennium ago? (It could be possible if we all turned Amish, I guess.)
In the last few months ever since I became an owner of an iphone with an internet connection, I have been appalled by the awareness of the WIFI waves in the surrounding air. If the WIFI in my phone is left on, every few feet that I travel, I am invited to join the various connections in the passing neighbourhoods. This made me realize that we are living in a world encompassed by magnetic waves which in no measure is good for our well being. Having said that one really does not have to go outside the house to be victimized by these waves, the electronic gadgets present in the modern homes including the microwave oven, the cell phone and computer can in their own ways cause enough damage to one’s health. I wish the doctor had advised me as to how I could do away with these necessities in my daily life.
What really took the cake was the shocking news I came across just recently. It was mentioned that in future 2% of Cancer could well be due to the CT and MRI scans taken routinely as diagnostic measure for various ailments including Cancer. I am sure that this percentage is only going to increase with the years. Thus we have reached a situation where from breathing to eating to even undergoing a treatment can in itself be the cause of Cancer. I wonder as to who coined the word Cancer for this condition. For this condition, like the crab burrowed deep in the wet sands, is able to cause enough damage in our bodies for a long period before it manifests in various forms.
As a lay person, my assessment is that there is no fool proof cure for this condition and the so called ‘remission” that the doctors proudly claim is only a waiting period before the next harsher blow comes by.
Unnikrishnan died of liver cirrhosis and he was a person who never ever had an alcoholic drink.