Stillness & Survival

A Journey Within

I was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease in 2008, when I was just seven. For nearly 15 years, I lived with it quietly, managing it, occasionally ignoring it, and eventually, accepting it.
In 2023, I underwent a kidney transplant. This is not just a medical chapter in my life; it's a story about stillness, surrender, and what changes when your only option is to stop and face it all.

Diagnosis, Avoidance, and That Blood Test

I hadn’t taken a kidney function test in over two years when my family insisted on one in mid-2022. The results flipped everything: Creatinine 7.1. That number, and what followed, forced me to pause everything, including leaving IIM Rohtak. The strange part? I didn’t feel sick. I was still playing cricket on weekends, still working full-time, still pretending everything was fine. Maybe it was luck. Maybe grace.

Surgery & Silence

On March 22, 2023, I received a kidney from my father. In the Kidney Transplant Unit (KTU), stripped of all distractions — no phone, no laptop, no people — I spent a week with my thoughts. And IPL highlights. But something shifted.

The only thing you sometimes have control over is perspective. Not the pain. Not the timeline. Just the story you choose to tell yourself.

Recovery, Cricket, and Reflection

The journey back wasn’t clean. I found myself back on a cricket field faster than I should have been. And yet, every part of me knew things had changed — not just my body, but my way of thinking. I let go of social media. I stopped needing validation. I slowed down. I began listening more than I spoke. I learned to respect stillness, not just momentum.

I don't share this for pity. I share it because stories like these live quietly behind timelines, headlines, and tags. And maybe someone needs to read it not as a survival story, but as a perspective shift they didn’t know they needed.