On World Cancer Day

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I have a particular liking for remembering dates. Not just any date, but those that witness something happy or tragic happening to me or others or the world at large. Along with noting them down, I make a point of remembering certain days of the year. This fourth day of February is also important. Before we see how, I’d recall two days of the Mays of 2017 and 2018. On both these days which were separated by a year the weather was pleasant. Perhaps that was the only pleasant thing. I’d just woken up when my cousin called me and said, ‘Wala SKIMS tamath, Beti Uncles gasov khabri’. It was the May of 2017. When we reached the premises of the hospital, we were denied entry because of some rule that disallowed too many frequent visits before noon. However, we didn’t go back. We managed to sneak our way through power rooms and well into the ward. There he was, sharing the room with five other patients as far as I can remember. I sat beside him. He seemed very well then, giving the impression that he’d be home hale and hearty. This was the last time I saw him. He died nine months later in February 2018.
On May 27, 2018 I was in a bus with my dearest friend Tanzeel, coming from Ganderbal to Srinagar. Just when the bus was outside SKIMS, Tanzeel got a call and was asked to come to SMHS to see his mother. Some fatal fluid had been accumulating in her stomach for the past few months. To drain it out of her debilitating body, she would be taken to hospital once every week. I told Tanzeel I would accompany him to the hospital. When we reached there, she in a wheel chair was being taken out of the ward. This was the first and the last time I saw her. She died a week later.
I saw both of them again afterwards, but dead. One nine months later and the other a week. They never recuperated, but went from bad to worse. They were killed by two species of the same genus. We have 200 of its ilk, but they all go by the same name. Cancer. In 2010 Tanzeel’s mother had had her breast removed, putting up the bravest of fights one ever could against this morbid monster. She wouldn’t have had expected that eight years later this would invade her body again, starting from eating away at her stomach. Having had to go through so many courses of chemotherapy already, her body couldn’t endure a single dose this time. The very medicine that was fed into her veins like, as one author puts it, the unloading of barrel after barrel of poisonous drugs, proved lethal and her body gave in. June 04, this year will be her first death anniversary. Beti Uncle died of Leukemia, the species in a molten and liquid form. Its symptoms and signs started showing up from his mouth, with some dreadful outgrowths that ultimately bogged him down to the grave.
On this World Cancer Day, my remembering them won’t bring them back, or any of the millions that were consumed by different faces of this monster. Anniversaries and remembrance days are to be observed, not just marked on the calendar. They act as yearly tuition classes. Cancer has been there with us for ages now and will probably stay for quite some time. Just a day in a year for raising awareness of cancer might not seem enough, but before being able to weed it out outright, we must first do away with our ignorance of many things associated with it. In every matter of our lives, consciousness and knowledge precede every course of action. Our beliefs, fears, doubts and desires always precede our actions. So being aware of cancer, its causes, prevention, detection and treatment, doesn’t remain just an idea, but a stepping stone to an effort to fight against it both individually and collectively. There’s a lot we can do on our part. I'm not saying that cancer will be eliminated overnight from humanity. No, it can’t be. It comes from the very basic building blocks we are made of. It's our own enemy. Our own body is its garrison, training center and battlefield. It wages war against its own territory and every element therein. Sun Tzu says, 'To secure ourselves against defeat lies in our own hands, but the opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy himself.' Identifying, reading and hearing about this global enemy will be our first onslaught against it. The more awareness of cancer we spread, the more we equip ourselves with hope and grit to fight against it.

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