Teen shows the write way in battle with emperor of all maladies

Tribune News Service

Deepkamal Kaur

Jalandhar, March 19

It was Arihant Sharma’s 17th birthday on November 10 last. Just two days ago, he had suffered acute pain in his chest while gyming and had undergone an X-ray examination. The doctor had advised him CT scan and other tests subsequently. It was on his birthday that he got a shocking report, that he was suffering from lung cancer and that it was in Stage-III.

“My birthday cake was cut in hospital amid all the sudden gloom. Of course, it was tragic but I did not shed a tear. My first reaction was to use Google to find out the life expectancy of a 17-year-old suffering from Stage-III lung cancer. I could not ask from anyone around me at that time. It mentioned that I could live for four to five months. So, I decided that I would live a full life till then and started listing out all those things I had to do in this time,” the brave boy shared his story in front of his fellow schoolmates in the auditorium of MGN Public School, Adarsh Nagar, here. Arihant is a student of Class XII (Non-medical) at the campus.

He told everyone that he had penned a book ‘Defying Destiny’ in three months which he finished in February. The book would be out in a week’s time. “I was already into diary writing. I had to vent out my thoughts and emotions somewhere. I could not share my emotions with my parents as being their only child I did not want them to feel on how I would be coping with it. So, diary writing really helped. I kept jotting down some notes everyday as I took chemotherapy shots, till it became a huge volume. One day, my father came and suggested that I could give my notes the shape of a book. So, I started working on it and here it is finally,” he told his audience. Arihant’s father Harish Sharma is an income tax officer. His mother is a school teacher.

Arihant shared the painful part of it, “I still have two more cycles of chemotherapy to go. I received the last shot this Monday. It being the fifth day today, I was somehow feeling better today and hence came to the school today to interact with you all.”

“I had long, wavy locks and was popular in my class. I have had to change my looks and I started wearing stylish caps,” he shared.

School teacher Rachita Kotwal said that the talk was part of the ongoing programme being run on the campus as part of the series ‘Hope beyond Hope’. She said that the school had announced to buy first 50 copies of his book. Vivek Joshi, another city-based activist, too was at the campus to share his experiences and interact with the students.

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