Cheers To Life

When I first met him, he was sitting in a waiting area outside the ultrasound room and waiting for his turn. He came for an ultrasound periodically in our department. As per our doctors, he had less than a year. An elderly graceful gentleman, he presented with multiple liver metastasis with primary in the lung. Through the year he became a confidate, a friend, a well-wisher, and my biggest fan. I never once, through all the chemo sessions saw him unfazed, unhappy, or angry at what life had thrown at him. Instead, he chose to be happy and involved at whatever he had at the moment. Moreover, our talks centered everything from politics to movies to philosophy to life and there was always fun and laughter with each conversation. There would be episodes he would come to the hospital with extreme pain and the moment that pain got relieved, he would say .. let's just have coffee. Or at other times in the middle of a chemo session, he would call and smile as he would hand over some of the best mangoes of the season ..saying .. try them out ..they are awesome.....happily, like a little child who wants to gift his favorite toy. As of today, the physical body is no longer there, the only basic truth of life being that we are all mortal. Furthermore, the bigger truth about life is also that there is more to life than just the physical body ..the laughter, the memories, the moments which touch you, the care that someone can show to everyone around in spite of having a terminal illness ..that is always what lives. To the lives that you envisaged for everyone around you ..I know the abundance of wishes that u always carry and I know that u always wanted everyone around you to be just happy. So here's to a life less ordinary, here’s to teaching how to live irrespective of what the situation is ..cheers to life.