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We often do not know what to say to someone who is suffering from something - an illness, or a loss. Often we are conditioned to how the one suffering perceives it. Here's a POV.
We often do not know what to say to someone who is suffering from something – an illness, or a loss. Often we are conditioned to how the one suffering perceives it. Here’s a POV.
I’d like to take a moment to pen down my thoughts about breast cancer and what that has taught me about communication.
My maternal grandmom had breast cancer. Till her last breath, she did not want to make it known to anyone. I’m not sure she even knew I knew about it. So much is the stigma and shame attached to breast cancer.
I don’t feel comfortable talking about her with respect to this illness since it was not her desire to have people know about it. Now, she is up in heaven… but I do feel it is important for those living with the illness not to feel this way.
I know another friend (who I consider close although we are only intermittently in touch) who had breast cancer. She used to run in marathons and was very active in the runners’ circuit. She still is. She, too, developed breast cancer a few years back. She openly spoke about it through articles in newspapers where she gave readers advice on how to handle a patient who has had breast cancer or who is suffering from it.
I’m not sure even my initial whatsapp message to her once I knew of her illness was appropriate. I truly just didn’t know what to say. It may have come across badly although I’m sure she knows that I meant well.
This is why it is so important to spread awareness about illnesses and how to handle someone with an illness. Often, even well-meaning people who care about us express their concern in a way that hurts us. We may realize years later that the person meant well, but the damage is done to that person.
As a communication specialist, I recognize the need for better interpersonal communication. The irony is that despite being in the field myself, I have often been severely misunderstood. It is important to know how one is coming across to another person. It is important to listen to understand, than just listen to respond.
There is no shame in having an illness. But as a friend or relative of a person with an illness, it is more important that you not shame the patient!
Everybody has a story of their own. Everybody has emotional baggage. It is important to realize that when a person acts a certain way toward you, it is more a reflection on that person rather than a reflection on you.
This may seem like psychobabble to some people, but don’t books and psychology have most of the answers to life? I think they do!
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Aishwariya Laxmi is a writer, editor, blogger, and poet living in suburban Chennai, India. She blogs on https://aishwariyalaxmi.com/ and has a newsletter at https://ash.fambase.com/. Her poems and flash fiction have read more...
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Neena was the sole caregiver of Amma and though one would think that Amma was dependent on her, Neena felt otherwise.
Neena inhaled the aroma that emanated from the pan and took a deep breath. The aroma of cumin interspersed with butter transported her back to the modest kitchen in her native village. She could picture her father standing in the kitchen wearing his white crisp kurta as he made delectable concoctions for his only daughter.
Neena grew up in a home where both her parents worked together in tandem to keep the house up and running. She had a blissful childhood in her modest two-room house. The house was small but every nook and cranny gave her memories of a lifetime. Neena’s young heart imagined that her life would follow the same cheerful course. But how wrong she was!
When she was sixteen, the catastrophic clutches of destiny snatched away her parents. They passed away in a road accident and Neena was devastated. Relatives thronged her now gloomy house and soon it was decided that she should be married off.
Women today don’t want to be in a partnership that complicates their lives further. They need an equal partner with whom they can figure out life as a team, playing by each other’s strengths.
We all are familiar with that one annoying aunty who is more interested in our marital status than in the dessert counter at a wedding. But these aunties have somehow become obsolete now. Now they are replaced by men we have in our lives. Friends, family, and even work colleagues. It’s the men who are worried about why we are not saying yes to one among their clans. What is wrong with us? Aren’t we scared of dying alone? Like them?
A recent interaction with a guy friend of mine turned sour when he lectured me about how I would regret not getting married at the right time. He lectured that every event in our lives needs to be completed within a certain timeframe set by society else we are doomed. I wasn’t angry. I was just disappointed to realize that annoying aunties are rapidly doubling in our society. And they don’t just appear at weddings or family functions anymore. They are everywhere. They are the real pandemic.
Let’s examine this a little closer.
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