In memory of my cousin brother who we lost to dengue...

Diwali..........the festival of lights.......

On this day he was born....my cousin brother....few months younger to me...so he was named 'Deepak'...

A cute boy, who grew into a fine young man.....with high educational degrees......got a job in information technology...was about to be promoted...

Things did not work that way.......at the tender age of 25, he was snatched from us by hemorrhagic dengue...

It was 2008...eight years have passed since then....the shock has not healed..some bolts never go away........especially for my aunt, who lost her eldest child.....

We were of same age...and were very close... 

The fateful day was late December.........

I was studying in Guwahati....I had just got back to my hostel from a fun-filled trip to Kaziranga NAtiinal PArk.......

As I called my mother, got to know he is running a high fever....I talked to him...he was having a heavy headache..so, it was brief..

Little did I know, it was the last time I am talking to him.......

The next day, on the way to the hospital, he suffered delirium and collapsed to death....

So sudden to even let the trauma sink in..

I was told about it a day after......

My people in Odisha know about malaria, even filaria.........but dengue was new to them....

They thought it to be a regular fever......who knew it was fatal dengue...

Its really devastating, as only a small fraction of dengue infections progress into the haemorrhagic form..

And he was young... was hardened from him army school training...yet!...Who knew Faridabad, his job place, where he contracted the virus is a dengue endemic place!

Sometimes, bane indeed lurks in what we think as boon.

To make things worse, his father, my uncle had died of septicemia few months back.

A well-to-do, happy family was ruined....

All that remains are few memories....when we played together as children in our maternal uncle's place....my jealousy when he was admitted to a better school than me...his disappointment when he could not join a defense career...his pride for me when I joined a top technology campus....

If only this incident would have been a nightmare..

If only, my aunt's life would not have been that miserable by pining for her child every moment..

We humans, for all we brag and boast are helpless in such situations..

My only consolation is that I work now day and night on many diseases.....HIV, Ebola, dengue, zika, tuberculosis, cancer, allergy, autoimmune diseases....researching and publishing on their causes and potential therapies...

I urge the readers to stay aware of your surroundings....morbidity and mortality comes in disguise..

In the quest for big dreams, do not jeopardize your health....

Make good use of the huge digital wealth at our finger tip...learn and educate people on health...

Precaution is always better than therapies..