Why I love Being a Diabetic ?? part III

I met all the people back home with joy, and so I did to my friends and relatives………..but to my surprise they were all bearing sympathy for me. Stuff like poor child, he had to deal with this, etc etc. To be honest, this pissed me further. The care is good, but sympathy is by far the best killer I have known. But somehow, I dealt with it.

After coming back to the house, I became a Guinea Pig for all those people who always wanted to be a doctor but never could given their mental / financial / academic obligations. They came to my house virtually everyday and would tell my mother to try the next best thing in the market with a sure shot cure for Diabetes. And I always wondered, why Diabetes is the most widespread condition globally with virtually every third person having this condition and with so much a cures available in the local folklore market. I bet you all know what a bitter gourd is, for my hindi loving fans its 'karela'. One of my closest relatives (or my diehard enemy should I say), prescribed me to have a grated bitter gourd juice the first thing in the morning and eat the grated part after consuming the juice. Hell, I have never tried Potassium Cyanide, but even that should taste sweeter than what I consumed for a period of one month. And to have it the first thing in the morning, believe me, spoils the whole day and be it aloo ka prantha or rajmah chawal……………..nothing is close to being a rescue operation. To all my fellow diabetics, I would suggest not to try this ever, as this will not cure diabetes or improve your condition. It will just take the sweetness out of the otherwise sugarfree sweet foods.

Next on the hitlist was a famous doctor who ran a charitable homeopathic dispensary in the nearby sector. Recommended again by all those wannabe doctors, I went to this doctor with my father. Well, I must admit here that doctor or not, that guy was a motivator. He motivated me so much with his talks and the white pills he gave me that on coming back home, I threw out the insulin injections out of my house claiming rather announcing that I am free from diabetes and can eat anything under the sun. And then, for another week I lived like a Maharaaja consuming every delicacy that my mom or I can cook. After that, I started feeling a little week and the doctor would say that I need energy foods like dry fruits, sugars which I happily consumed. But after sometime of treating my tongue, I felt that something is not right and my body is not responding well to me. And here was the record, I was surviving and in my senses at a blood glucose level of more than 600 mg/dl which is the condition where doctors would say that there are chances of being going to what they call 'Diabetic Coma'. To my luck, I never went to that condition and doctors were surprised.

And now I question myself, who was to blame if I went to that coma? Was it the doctor? Was it me? Was it my father? Was it my mother? Was it the society who recommended that doctor? To be honest, it was me. I knew from the very first day that this is not right, and after having read quiet a literature on diabetes, I knew this is something suicidal. But I guess, this is the first thing that we diabetics have to cope up with at this age. You name the factors and they are there - adolescence, adrenalin, sympathy which we never want, family trying to cure you with infinite number of experiments, your friends see you as a diseased entity, and many more. Suicidal tendencies, to let go off the tension is very common and of course, there was the thirst for sugar and sugar products. I was never a sweet eater but I was adventurous for sure. After being diagnosed, my mother would keep the sugar in our almirah's locker where others would keep their jewellery. We made fun of this many a times, that if ever a thief pays a visit, he will find nothing but sugar in our lockers. Being the adventurous guy I was and I am, having sugar from that locker came as a challenge to me, and to be honest here…………I mastered the art of unlocking a locker without the keys.

My mom used to go to the temple daily at 7 pm and she would come back at 8 pm. This hour was enough for me to cook something out of that sugar and consume it. I did it many a times, and when I realized something was wrong with me……….thankfully, it wasn’t late. The doctors changed my insulin injection and I became normal again. The fear of what would have happened helped me take this sugar eating habit off my mind. Sugar free items became my cup of tea now.

Its all about developing your taste, sugar habit is very easy to take off. I wont go to the superstitious and religious ceremonies I went through to please the deities and get sugar off my blood as there was many. As a result of this, I memorize hanumaan chalisa and shiv chalisa word to word and can recite them without even looking once at the book.

When everything else fails, religion builds your faith. My mother used to go to the nearby temple barefoot, believing that perhaps god almighty will listen to her and cure her son. She wouldn’t give a damn about the weather conditions or the people who used to pass comments on her that she is showing off to be a true believer. But believe me, its in us……….its in us as a member of the society or a family. In our darkest hour, we all go to him for a little faith and support. I cannot possibly thank my mother for what she has done for me, but perhaps none of us can. Mothers are ………………………..just mothers. I found courage in her, and she gave me the support I needed at every moment of my life. For all of us, who do not believe in the power of telepathy and mother, herez a confession and an incident. When I was on bed for a week with that homeopathy doctor's prescription, one fine evening I needed water like anything, and I could not say a word out of weekness. I just called my mother out of my mind and believe me she was there and asked me why I have called her? That’s mother for us all. She knows when you need, what you need and when you don’t say it.

In my school, I wasn’t much of an achiever at first but the Diabetes and accompanied look from classmates and teachers inspired me to step on the stage and prove myself. I remember I won my first debate competition with my classmate kanwarinder singh and all the teachers were staring at me talking and banging the lecture desk every alternate point that I made on stage. The confidence was oozing out of my sweat and the will to prove. That was just a starting, I went through many ups and downs at the school level and would not like to talk much about them as they bring some really bad memories………………….i would like to apologize to all for if I ever hurt them in school.

However, it wasn’t all regrets in school. There were moments too. I wouldn’t take much of your time and would just quote two such instances on which I would still sit and laugh like anything. The first one, all our classmates just entered class ix and we were all having a blast with each other, just then something happened to girls of our class that they went out of the class and then enter our furious class teacher with a list of boys in our class. Of course, my name was on that list with my fellow classmates, we all went to the staffroom where in the teacher told us that the girl complained that we all were teasing them showing a diagram of a pregnant lady in our text book. The funny thing in this was that the girls also named the most sincere guy of our class who would even think of anything like this in his dreams. His name is Munish Chauhan. This made us laugh at that moment where we all should be standing with our heads down listening to all kinds of stuff from our teacher. Of course, we never did this and we still don’t understand why those girls did that.

The next instance was when I was playing cricket match with our rival class. Their pace spearhead was on the attack and I had already hit him for a boundary, then a three and another three. It was his last ball and he was furious. Pandit, as we called him, came firing up and bowled that delivery. The ball was coming very nicely to the bat and I came before the wicket and played it across with full energy I can gather. The next thing, I was on the floor………………………………the ball literally hit my balls, and I was like 'main kaun hu? Main kaha hu?' then I see our team captain, Abhinav Singh Gill, (a nice guy), running towards me and he took all the guys off me and declared that I cant breathe and he will have to artificially respirate me. I just heard artificial breathing and I gathered all my strength to threw this guy off my chest. I would die rather to get artificial breathe from someone of my own sex. Of course, he was trying to help me but the very thought of mouth to mouth respiration…………..its eerie…

REST NEXT TIME…………………………………...