my romantic tryst with cancer

Mohammedali Road, Mumbai.

This is the view from the porch at the Radio Club where we had lunch this afternoon...

The attached picture is one of Mumbai's many famous landmarks. A neo-gothic wonder that rivalled anything the empire had back home- the Rajabai Clock Tower on the Bombay University campus. Rumour has it that they closed it off a few decades ago when it turned into a suicide magnet for students who did not fare that well in their exams. The maidan (field) in the foreground, now cricket central, was once the vast open areas the Brits cultivated around their forts to have clear firing range on any attackers. Ironically the university was built on the footprint of the fort's walls, and the expanse of open space, once Bombay's lungs and emerald jewels, has been whittled into irrelevance by generations of land grabs, corruption and negligence. Behind where I stand and take this picture stood a row of fine Art Deco apartments, now renovated into nouveau riche hell. I decided to let my legs take me around the City today and walked and walked for a few hours along familiar

I promised a few pictures... A bit disturbing today. I decided to ta ke a walk through the old Crawford Market and it's surrounds. Here's the transcript of a chat I had a bit later with a friend. TM: am a little shaken today- saw a group of street kids tearing a little puppy apart... we're breeding animals in this smokestack... how can the future every be bright? Friend:  oh, there's work to be done, all right. Makes me wonder if staying in the ivory tower and working toward a phd is the way i want to spend my twenties/prepare for a career and a life... TM:  the water will reach our feet sooner or later... the ivory tower does give perspective though that's hard to find if you're on the ground. I'm getting a bit tired of people telling me "you'll get used to it"- it's a danger to start getting indifferent about things that matter Friend:  yes, i don't really want to get "used to it" A grounding, but is it a wake up

sat by the sea this evening and watched the sliver of a moon gently settle on the edge of the world, where a dark sea met the smouldering sky...

(Thanks for the title quote jB) Yes, I do not have to undergo radioactive iodine ablation (RAI). The new guidelines (which I'd scrutinised on a hammock in Mexico) had me and my former multifocal carcinomas on the edge of knife and my endocrinologist and I discussed it carefully and decided to say no to nuking me. Thank you G for deconstructing the research jargon and everyone else who helped me make sense of the issue since my operation in September. Besides the increased risks to other primary cancers and medical conditions (including leukaemia, brain cancer, dry mouth and even infertility) that it would have put me at, it would also have set off radioactive detectors at airports which, as other RAI recipients have shared, is not a pleasant experience and warrants a thorough checking and carrying letters from doctors with oneself as well as the hope that airport authorities will believe them. No more doctors or hospitals (if I can help it). We now track and monitor and do so

with all that 2009 brought me, it brought me so much, if I had to live that year again, I wouldn't change a thing lest any part of it be left out of my life and my learnings and love... best wishes for the new year to all and any may it bring us all health, happiness and hope...