DROP OF DEW ON THE TIP OF A LEAF

Triple Negative — a tale of love, faith, and surrender is just so, even though Aarti Pathak's memoir revolves around her struggles to cope with grief, a life-threatening disease and the heart-wrenching efforts both she and her loved ones make to ensure a semblance of normalcy in their lives in the midst of it. The author presents a lilting melody of hope, endurance and striving on a subject as macabre as cancer

- By Madhumita Chakraborty

WHO COULD FORGET young Asya and her agony at losing a breast to cancer, even before life had begun for her in Cancer Ward? Since then, cancer has evolved as a "leading cause of death" around the world according to the World Health Organization (WHO), "accounting for nearly 10 million deaths in 2020". Breast cancer afflicted 2.3 million women worldwide, according to WHO and claimed 6.7 lakh lives.

The lump on Aarti Pathak’s breast surfaced a year later on the morning she was to visit a morgue where her mother’s body lay. Pathak lost her mother during the second phase of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2021, a year in which four lakh “excess” deaths have now been estimated in India.