An articulate biography written from the heart
The book enlightens readers on arteriovenous malformation
(AVM). I admit, I didn’t know much about AVM before I picked up Ashok’s book.
The catchy title “brain exploded” is what caught my attention. However, the
book is more than just brain exploding. I
came away with a much better
understanding of what people with this rare disease go through.
Of course, the book is not just about a man’s disease or how
he overcomes his aliments. Reading Ashok’s
story brought out raw emotions in me, with
some laughter thanks to his self deprecating humor and some tears while trying
to empathize with his travails and tribulations.
He articulates his strong emotions experienced towards his
family, primarily his father and brother. With his brother, it is a
manifestation of an element of sibling rivalry. In the book, Ashok opens his
heart, giving the readers his true feelings about life, relationship, race and
work place politics and the life of a AVM survivor.
Hats off to Ashok for
the effort in writing with his heart ; an eloquent and highly readable book.
After a full-throttle brain bleed at the age of twenty-five, Ashok
Rajamani, a first-generation Indian American, had to relearn everything:
how to eat, how to walk and to speak, even things as basic as his
sexual orientation. With humor and insight, he describes the events of
that day (his brain exploded just before his brother’s wedding!), as
well as the long, difficult recovery period. In the process, he
introduces readers to his family—his principal support group, as well as
a constant source of frustration and amazement. Irreverent,
coruscating, angry, at times shocking, but always revelatory, his memoir
takes the reader into unfamiliar territory, much like the experience
Alice had when she fell down the rabbit hole. That he lived to tell the
story is miraculous; that he tells it with such aplomb is simply
remarkable.
More than a decade later he has finally reestablished
a productive artistic life for himself, still dealing with the effects
of his injury—life-long half-blindness and epilepsy— but forging ahead
as a survivor dedicated to helping others who have suffered a similar
catastrophe.
NRI Angle: The book is authored by Ashok Rajamani, a first-generation Indian American, who explores his emotions after his tragic brain aneurysm
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