“When life gives you lemons, make lemonade!”
This
is what comes to my mind when I
think of Arun, the 16 year old, with a diehard optimism in life that
will put
most of us to shame. He could have been any other teenage boy with a
head bursting with ideas and a heart filled with dreams, but for the
fact that he suffers from blood cancer.
I first came to know of him through
my friend, Bindu, who runs Aroh, a Coimbatore based charitable trust which
works towards the welfare of children afflicted with cancer. Arun, is a
brilliant boy with an unbeatable zest for life. Adverse financial and family circumstances or his
life threatening disease never ever succeeded in defeating the enthusiasm
of this youngster as he struggled with his illness, education, and a part time
job which ensured money to help out his aged grandmother and sister with whom he lives. I will not mention
the long list of misfortunes that gripped him since his birth, because here is
a child who never let any of it bother him. All I say is that many of us may
not have survived such ordeals in life.
Aroh funded his treatment and
education, and its dedicated volunteers very often played mentor to this enthusiastic
boy. I was fortunate enough to have been a facilitator to a small part of his educational requirements,
through some of my Facebook friends who donated funds to this cause, and I
always praythat he recover from his illness and lives a normal life.
It was touching to see Bindu write
about Arun yesterday, in the Facebook page of Aroh. Here is what she had to say:
“We have seen a lot of children in
the past two years and we have lost quite a few also. Everyone is special and
everyone has touched us but some more than others.
Arun has been special from the beginning..highly intelligent, smart, witty and extremely affectionate. Volunteers make sure that they read the newspaper before they go visit him because he invariably talks about current affairs. It always brings a smile to us to see him surrounded by pretty nursing students. He entertains us by telling stories about his girlfriends, imaginary and real.
He complains if we don't hug him or hold his hands. At 16, he is writing his autobiography! Life has given him enough to fill a book. When his Blood Cancer came back, he never complained or asked "why me". But he asked us about how it is going to end, how much time he has left. He talked to the Doctor also. And he chose to write his Std IX exam over chemo. His condition has worsened since then and he is back in the hospital today.
So we were there in the morning and he could hardly speak. Voice has become very feeble and he is in considerable pain. Then he asks me to bend my head and he says when it's all over, he wants to donate his organs! He says he will fill up the forms, turn his Patti around to agree, but I should promise him that when it happens, Patti, in her grief, shouldn't forget!
I am speechless........”
Arun has been special from the beginning..highly intelligent, smart, witty and extremely affectionate. Volunteers make sure that they read the newspaper before they go visit him because he invariably talks about current affairs. It always brings a smile to us to see him surrounded by pretty nursing students. He entertains us by telling stories about his girlfriends, imaginary and real.
He complains if we don't hug him or hold his hands. At 16, he is writing his autobiography! Life has given him enough to fill a book. When his Blood Cancer came back, he never complained or asked "why me". But he asked us about how it is going to end, how much time he has left. He talked to the Doctor also. And he chose to write his Std IX exam over chemo. His condition has worsened since then and he is back in the hospital today.
So we were there in the morning and he could hardly speak. Voice has become very feeble and he is in considerable pain. Then he asks me to bend my head and he says when it's all over, he wants to donate his organs! He says he will fill up the forms, turn his Patti around to agree, but I should promise him that when it happens, Patti, in her grief, shouldn't forget!
I am speechless........”
I am also speechless, Bindu... and in tears.
We have a lot to learn from this young boy. All I can do is to pray that Arun
survives this illness and comes out of it to lead a life of his dreams…
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