Column

The spectre of death, it is said, is scarier than death itself. Ask Naidu (name changed) of Hyderabad and he would readily agree.

Rewind to 1984. Barely four years after his marriage, Naidu discovered a lump in one of his legs. His wife, scared to see the mass of flesh grow each day, was beset with a foreboding of doom.

Naidu wasn’t flustered, though, often brushing aside his wife's queries. "It's nothing, sweetheart, just a football," he would joke.

In his heart of hearts, however, he sensed something amiss, wanting to visit a doctor, but postponing it due to work.

One day, his wife forced him to visit a doctor duo, commonly known as the Reddy couple. A biopsy and thorough investigation later, the reports declared the lump to be malignant.

In deference to his wife's wishes, Naidu agreed to consult Dr RS Rao, then dean of Tata Memorial Hospital in Bombay, who was known to wriggle people out of a disease regarded as incurable.

On seeing the case papers Dr Rao asked Naidu, "Well, young man, can you do with one leg if the one that's infected were to be amputated?"

"Why not?" came Naidu's prompt reply. His wife was shattered, but Naidu never lost his equanimity. "You have to reconcile with the dictates of destiny, dear," he consoled her.

Dr Rao, after patiently perusing the past reports, sent a sample of the lump for tests again. After 72 hours, he met Naidu with a broad grin. "Relax," he said, "it's not malignant at all. It's a simple cyst."

Naidu stood transfixed. For the last seven days, he had, despite putting up a brave front, died an excruciating death each moment of the day — all because of one erroneous report.

When his enraged wife confronted the Reddy couple back home, they in turn challenged the Tata hospital's findings.

"Come to think of it, the worst could have happened. I walked into Dr Reddy's chamber as a normal man and came out as a patient. Then, I walked into Dr Rao's cabin as a patient, but emerged as a healthy human. God intervenes in strange ways. I now want to live life to its fullest," Naidu told his wife.

The intrepid Naidu lived. Twenty-four years on, he is the publisher of a newspaper in Mumbai. Positive thinking can make the impossible easily possible.