New Delhi, April 4 In his new fictionalized memoir, journalist-author Ashok Nilakantan has documented his wife Usha Ashok's battle against renal failure, while exploring the themes of the economics of a disease, the sacrifices of caregivers, and the struggles of finding a balance between a professional career and personal catastrophe.
Nilakantan's "Borrowed Time, Borrowed Hope" offers an intimate chronicle of his life around Usha's fight against kidney disease, through the characters of Arushi and Naren, in a "heart-wrenching journey through India's complex healthcare system, marked by desperate searches for competent care and crushing medical expenses."
The medico-social thriller follows journalist Naren who quits his media job for the security of a high-paying corporate job when his wife is diagnosed with chronic renal failure.
The nearly 450-page book documents Naren's struggles with finances and career, his desperate need to be by his wife's side as she undergoes endless dialysis sessions, and his race against time to find a kidney donor.
Based on real events that unfolded in his life from 1998 to 2002, the book, Nilakantan said, follows a fictionalized narrative to highlight "the gravity of the disease."
"To make people understand the seriousness of a disease that is challenging your finances, your emotions, your financial resources, and even your existence, elements from real life had to be dramatized to create a sense of urgency so that people are forewarned and prepared for the second most dangerous disease in the world," Nilakantan told