It was the evening of the 8th of October 2005. I was thrusting a lot of my belongings in a bag as I was preparing to go to the Cleveland clinic, America for a training course of 2 months duration. Meanwhile, my wife, Mrs. Priya, came along with a photograph of her deity (Yes, I was considering HIM as only her deity then) and said to me, “Rajeev, I know that you do not believe, but please keep this photograph in your bag for my sake.” At the time, I was not aware that the hands of Param Poojya Bapu, in the photograph, which were raised to give blessings, will hold back the ‘gigantic Tsunami’ approaching my life! During those years, I used to travel abroad at least 5 to 6 times a year. But it was only during this visit that my wife thought of giving me this photograph and this was not a mere coincidence.
In the third week of November, there was a sudden shot of pain in my back (ribs). I thought that it was probably because of the snowfall, cold breeze and my demanding daily schedule. Since I was returning to India within 5 days, I did not bother to get it investigated in America totally unaware of the fact that ‘Blood Cancer’, an extremely dangerous disease, was taking control over my body. While I was returning to India, the platelet count in my body had drastically dropped down to a mere 10000 (In normal individuals, this count ranges between 1.5 lakhs to 4.5 lakhs.
- Dr. Rajeev Karnik
