When Rajam’s tests returned positive for a malignant tumour, she surprised everyone with her equanimity. She had to undergo a mastectomy. Rajamani, Rajam’s husband, was shattered. Before she was wheeled into the operation theatre, she told him, “I will come back and keep nagging you.”
A day after the surgery, she celebrated her 60th birthday in the hospital, amidst the medical professionals. In the last 50 years, she has been battling various health problems without giving in to self-pity. At 24, she was diagnosed with tuberculosis. As a result, she could not feed her seven-month-old infant. In the early 1990s, she lost partial vision in one eye. In 2004, she was diagnosed with cancer. She recovered. In 2006, when she was in Kodaikanal her oxygen levels dropped, hitting a critical low of 70. She was delirious. From then on, she has been suffering from sleep apnea. In 2010, her kidneys failed and she undergoes continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) thrice a day. Amidst these health challenges, she registered for her Ph.D in Tamil literature in 2011. Within four to five months, cancer struck again and she had to undergo a second mastectomy. At the same time, she developed renal infection. She however did not give up her thesis work.
In June 2014, she lost partial vision in the other eye. “I was disappointed when the doctor advised me not to read anything from the computer screen. I had to wear a special pair of spectacles. My husband and son would download materials from the Internet for my research work. My husband would read them to me and I started to writing instead of typing,” says Rajam. Rajam’s Ph.D deals with women characters in Ramayana. While battling these ailments, she worked as newsreader at the All-India Radio in Delhi and Madras stations, as a stringer for Voice of America in Chennai, and as copywriter for various advertisement agencies in Bombay. She has also directed, produced and acted in dramas in radio and television episodes. Many of her skits have won awards. Also, in Kodaikanal she was engaged in conducting health camps in villages. Rajam, now attributes her mental tenacity to her mother. “My mother lost her mother when she was six and she had problems when she was brought up by her stepmother. When she was 34, my father had a paralytic attack and she shouldered the responsibility of bringing up her children and taking care of our sick father,” says Rajam.
