Thanks to my brother and sister, with love

When one looks back and asks: "To whom do I owe my resurrection?", there are so many people that come to mind.

Saraswathi (aka Ranjani) who continues to be next to me.

My siblings --  sister Nalini and brother Ramesh -- and their families. The former stayed close to my parents when my treatment was on and the latter donated his stem cells to save my life.

It is very difficult to come across more calm and collected individuals than my brother Ramesh and sister Nalini. Our personalities are quite different. When it came to getting themselves HLA-typed to see if they can be candidates for donating stem cells needed for my Leukaemia treatment -- they immediately got it done. Whereas the probability of a sibling match is only ¼ to ⅓, both of them matched for me! Doctors opined that being male and younger than me, my brother was preferred. So the most difficult step and perhaps the biggest question in any La treatment -- needing matching stem cell donors -- was answered in my case in the affirmative with relative ease. My brother-in-law, Shri Narayanan, a socially sensitive person, got all the necessary papers ready just in case he and my sister had to travel to the US on short notice to help in my treatment.

(The probability of a non-sibling match is 1 in 20000, and so those without siblings or have no matches with siblings invariably have a tougher future ahead of them. Out of desperation sometimes patients and doctors resort to transplant with partially matched donors - leading to complications later. Worse still is the situation for those who reconcile themselves to an uncertain future waiting for a matching donor to come by some day. Driven by these cases, my Dr. S.P. started MDRI whose goal is to register future stem cell donors. Please see "The challenge of finding stem cell donors" for more on this movement).

Once my doctors at MDA agreed to my stem cell transplant, my brother flew into Houston and went in for a complete physical examination and reexamination of his blood parameters. Then, in time for the transplant -- to make sure that his stem cells found their way into peripheral blood -- he gave himself booster shots for a few days. All went well and thanks to my brother’s generosity and love, I am leading a normal life today.

My brother-in-law (SK's brother) Murali and his family went far above the call of duty. His being there, with us, giving his sister solid support, allowed me to forget about the ordeal. We will be forever indebted to him and his wife Uma. A separate entry will be dedicated to them.

I do not know how many friends, some whose names and faces I never knew and may never know, and many who continue  to give me the support I need to live a full life. People of all kinds came forward to donate blood and platelets in a timely manner. Countless people kept us in their thoughts and prayers.

My friends and colleagues from IITB and UMass deserve kudos for  their multi-pronged engagement  with me that made sure that I had little time or need to worry about my health issues or the costs involved.

What is common to all of these people is that every one of them went above and beyond the need of the hour, and for this and more, I thank them profusely, knowing fully well, that their being there when I needed them made the difference that kept me going.

I will write later about many of these selfless (groups of ) people in separate entries.