HEAD TONSURE - A NEW MEANING (11-June-2020)

June marks the International Cancer Survivor’s month; exactly one year ago on 10-June was my beloved mother’s surgery to remove a cancerous growth.  By God’s Grace she is a survivor today and in good health now.

Last year around her surgery schedule, a lot of time was spent at the hospital premises for tests, doctor reviews, therapy sessions, hospitalizations, and post care.  As I watched a sea of people of all ages, my perception changed; now I apply a different set of lenses when I look at things around.  At the hospital, there were a variety of faces - some sad, some very anxious, some perplexed, some writhed in pain, some heaved a sigh of relief, and some with a sprightly smile to hide the pain.  Things have quite a different meaning now!

In the cancer hospital cocoon, it is natural to see many tonsured heads.  My mind froze in time and wandered a bit to surface the many facts that were deep etched in its crevices.  Head tonsure is considered a religious practice.  The holiest Hindu pilgrimage site Tirupati, while it reverberates with the chanting of the God’s name, also offers the endless sight of millions of people with their heads tonsured.  One will see an equal number of men and women who have offered their hair to the Lord.  This custom is also considered a true form of sacrifice and an expression of one’s love towards the Almighty.

In the hospital scenario, my perception changed instantaneously - these heads were tonsured for a reason, and not out of any choice.  Many of the patients had undergone chemotherapy, and one of the side-effects among others is hair loss.  In most cases, the patients undergo multiple sessions of chemotherapy which should have cleansed them of the cancer cells but made to put up with a new external appearance, albeit temporarily.  By now health is catapulted as their highest priority.

All of them had to fight cancers of various forms – breast, mouth, brain, skin, stomach, esophagus, intestine, cervical, prostate, ovarian, lymph nodes, and many more and at various stages.  In almost all cases, the patients had to endure surgeries as well as radiation-therapy and chemotherapy, with a mix of specific medicines.  The patients’ mental toughness to stay compliant with the intensity and duration of the treatment, while the caregivers undergo a roller-coaster ride as the patient journeys through the treatment path, are only indicative of what this disease inflicts on a patient and the loved ones.

As this fact started to sink in, I was able to compare the hospital environment here with that on the Seven Hills.  Probably there was a strong rationale in many of the patients and the survivors who had taken a vow to offer their hair to the Lord if they returned ‘clean’ post chemotherapy treatment.  Healthy people too offered hair to the Lord in return for good health.

Thanks to science and the medical advancement in recent times that more of the cancer-afflicted today can hope for a better tomorrow, free of the disease, and live amidst others as brave survivors.  Can there be a day in the near future when there is a cure and cancer is no longer dreaded?  Let us pray for the day to arrive soon with advancement in areas such as genomics, molecular diagnostics, informatics, and proteomics with an over-arching approach of personal medicine.

I stand up to salute the resilience of the affected who have shown the courage and the will to fight.