Vijay Santhanam - My Stroke of Luck: Alphabet to Author--One Mans Inspiring Journey from Adversity to Triumph

My Stroke of Luck

Hay House Publishers (India) Pvt. Ltd.

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Copyright 2013 Vijay Santhanam

The views and opinions expressed in this book are the authors own and the facts are as reported by him, which have been verified to the extent possible, and the publishers are not in any way liable for the same.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, by any mechanical, photographic, or electronic process, or in the form of a phonographic recording, nor may it be stored in a retrieval system, transmitted, or otherwise be copied for public or private use other than for fair use as brief quotations embodied in articles and reviews without prior written permission of the publisher.

The author of this book does not dispense any medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical, emotional, or medical problems either directly or indirectly. The intent of the author is only to offer information of a general nature. In the event you use any of the information in this book for yourself, which is your constitutional right, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.

ISBN 978-93-81431-95-5

Printed and bound at
Rajkamal Electric Press, Sonepat, Haryana (India)

For
Kainaz

Contents

Prologue
The Calm Before the Storm

Chapter 1
The 24 Hours of My Ignorance and Stupidity

Chapter 2
And Then, the Lightning Strikes

Chapter 3
The Will to Fight and the Harsh Realization

Chapter 4
An Unsettling Week, but Much Progress Too

Chapter 5
Fighting Back from the Corner Room

Chapter 6
A for Apple: Back to Basics

Chapter 7
Getting Back on My Feet

Chapter 8
The Clot Clears, and the Mind Starts to

Chapter 9
What Is Life Without Family and Friends?

Chapter 10
Returning Home and the Catharsis

Chapter 11
Our Trip to India

Chapter 12
The Thesis

Chapter 13
Striving for Normalcy: Getting Behind the Wheel

Chapter 14
Returning to Work: I Propose and the Doctor Disposes, Partly

Chapter 15
Struggles and Surmounting Obstacles

Chapter 16
The Day I Thought I Was Dying

Chapter 17
To Quit or Not to Quit?

Chapter 18
And Then, I Quit on My Terms

Chapter 19
Retired at Forty-Four; Therapy Resumes

Chapter 20
Relearning Tamil and then Hindi

Chapter 21
The Fascinating World of Languages

Chapter 22
A Discussion with the Scientific World

Chapter 23
Alphabet to Author

Chapter 24
An Assessment: Six Years Post-Stroke

Epilogue
My Stroke of Luck

Appendix
Kasparov vs. IBMs Deep Blue

A n author needs help from many to convert the manuscript to a published book. I wish to thank the key people who helped me in this journey:

Sherna, my effective and efficient literary agent. Renu, for her excellent editing.

From Hay House: to Aeshna for her initial coordination and Sanjana for her overall coordination of the book with both quality and speed and for her meticulous and thoughtful final corrections, which have helped to minimize errors and enriched the language.

My recovery so far could not have happened without the help of so many people, in so many ways. This is an appropriate opportunity for me to thank them profusely:

Dr Tang Kok Foo, for being a very competent neurologist and an even better person.

Mary, Pragati, Radika, Saraswathi, Sherine, and Siva, for helping me talk and walk again and more. Senthil and Sudarshan, my yoga masters and Dippler, my swimming coach.

Sachin Tendulkar, Adam Gilchrist and Rahul Dravid, for the inspiration and encouragement I got from you.

Amma (Hema), for your incredible help, understanding and patience.

Arjun, Cyrus, Dad (Rattan), Jay, Mom (Najoo), Priya, Puja, Shirin, Taranah, Vivek, Zaina and Zarius, for your constant support and encouragement.

Last but not least, my friends, for whose help I have no words to describe:

Aalok and Rameet, Aileen, AJ (Andrew), Anupam and Anjali, Atul, BJ (Jayachandran), Charu and Ramesh, Craig, Diana, Deeptha and Dinesh, Dilnaz, Dippy (Deepshika) and Gautam, Gullu (Deepak) and Sheetal, Hanna, Keith, Mannu (Manish) and Rohini, Mohit (Anand), Mohit (Das) and Jyotsana, Nayantara and Vivek (Bali), Parag, Pat and Appa (Patricia and Aparajito), Priyali and Akshay, Ram (Ramchander) and Sumathy, Rama and Kannan, Ravi (Pisharody) and Anita, Ravi (Sreedharan), Rosemary, Roy, Sandeep and Rakhee, Shailendra, Shailesh and Sankhya, Shankar, Uma and Shreya, Shireesh and Preeti, Shyam, Smita and Sumeet (Mehta), Sumeet (Vohra), Sumeet (Wadhwa) and Sheila, Vaidy (Vaidyanath) and Shanthi, Vat (Srivathsan).

Prologue
The Calm Before the Storm

T his is the story of an ordinary man me. My story here is focussed on a period of exactly four years, starting on 28 August 2006. As I said earlier, I am an ordinary man; I am not a famous person. So why would anyone be interested in four years of an ordinary mans life?

Ive been told by those closest to me and also by anyone who has learnt about these four years of my life that my story is extraordinary and therefore worth sharing. Perhaps theyre just being kind. But, beyond that, I suppose there is a germ of truth in this claim: its not often that a person is forced to relearn the alphabet at the age of 41 and to progress from letters to words to sentences to paragraphs to pages to finally become a published author. More often than we think, when an ordinary man is subjected to extraordinary situations, he rises to do extraordinary things. He doesnt just survive he thrives. To be honest, therefore, this story is really an example of the quintessential nature of human beings. I am merely narrating this story from the benefit of the close personal experience I had with a particular set of extraordinary challenges.

My story starts 24 hours before I suffered a massive stroke that affected my left-brain. As a result, it badly affected the right part of my body hand and leg and, overall, my mental abilities (speech, language knowledge and skills, mathematics etc.). Though I have far from fully recovered from my stroke, I have recovered significantly in the last four years. Recovered significantly enough to become an author and to write this book. My experience of the stroke and my recovery so far could, I believe, help similar patients and, more importantly, help understand the trauma the family and friends of stroke victims also go through.

But there is a significant, bigger reason for me to write this book to celebrate the human spirit, as I said earlier. So at the end of the story, if you are left feeling sympathetic and sad, I would have failed miserably as an author.

This is not my first book after the stroke. My first book (co-authored with a good friend, Shyam Balasubramanian), entitled, If Cricket Is a Religion, Sachin is God was published by HarperCollins India in 2009, three years after my stroke. My second book (also with Shyam), entitled,