This story is not just that of a sister donating a kidney to her brother. It is also the background of a concept called Post Traumatic Growth I have come to understand only recently, after I heard Sheryl Sandberg talk about it at our Lean In Singapore event in November.
It was actually quite bizarre that when our surgery was taking place, the Raksha Bandhan festival celebrations were in full swing throughout the country. Raksha Bandhan, to those not familiar, is a festival in India that celebrates the bond between brother and sister.
Traditionally the sister ties a “Raakhi” (a symbolic thread) on the brother’s wrist and the brother reaffirms that he will protect the sister at all times. Ofcourse with strong values rooted in gender equality, when I used to celebrate it with my children – a girl and a boy – they tied the Raakhi to each other!
We were contacted by the hospital soon after the surgery that a newspaper wanted to cover our story as a special Raksha Bandhan feature. I couldn’t do it immediately then, but had written this up more than a year ago, when they reached out to me again.
When my brother shared this link on our family Whatsapp group this morning, I was surprised to see it was our story. Brought a smile to my face and a tear to my eye to note they had published it on my late father’s birthday (21st Jan).
