The Day My Brain Exploded Read online

  Dad: Thank you for your unconditional love and support through everything; you’re a wonderful father, and a wonderful man.

  Puthucode Ramanan Uncle: You showed me the virtue of letting go.

  Lakshmi: Love you, my precious niece.

  Karmen: Thank you for being there for us.

  Ramakrishna Parameshwar Aiyer: You were not only my grandfather, but my idol and inspiration.

  Meenakshi Aiyer and Rajam Swamy, my spitfire grandmothers: I’d like to think some part of your gorgeous fierceness rubbed off on me. And to every other departed elder of my family: I will always cherish you, and hope you’re proud of me, wherever you are.

  Thanks to the healers:

  My neurologists; neurosurgical team; neuro-ophthalmologist; neuropsychologist; neuropsychopharmacologist; epileptologist; otorhinolaryngologist; psychotherapist; infectious- disease doctors; cardiologists; hospital nurses in the intensive care units and neuro-critical care units; physical, visual, speech, cognitive, and occupational therapists; and medical advisors. Thank you all from the bottom of my heart.

  Thanks to the team:

  The Algonquin/Workman crew, namely Brunson Hoole, Kelly Bowen, Elisabeth Scharlatt, Bob Miller, and Chris Stamey; Emma Sweeney; Jeremy George; Thangam Aiyer; Kashmira Shah; Renu Shah; the Chinwalas; Pat Sajak; Fuaud Yasin; Lennon Safe; Fred Guerriero; Penelope Franklin; Moko Hirayama; Sallie Randolph; Vanna White; Jay Blotcher; my educators at Avon Center School; and all the dear friends I’ve made as Ashok 1.0, and now as Ashok 2.0. Special thanks to Tom Dobbins and Timothy D. Bellavia.

  I’D LIKE TO give a very personal tribute to my fellow AVM and brain surgery survivor-warriors, as well as to those who have bravely fought and overcome aneurysms, hemorrhages, strokes, and all forms of brain injury; to the visually handicapped; to those living with epilepsy; and to the courageous little Indian American boys or girls growing up in Small Town, USA, fighting for the correct pronunciations of their names. Rock on.

  Above all, I salute my Highest Power, without whom I would not still be living and breathing. Hari Bol. Om.

  Published by

  Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill

  Post Office Box 2225

  Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27515-2225

  a division of

  Workman Publishing

  225 Varick Street

  New York, New York 10014

  © 2013 by Ashok Rajamani. All rights reserved.

  The names and other identifying details of some characters in this memoir have been changed to protect individual privacy and anonymity.

  ISBN 978-1-61620-166-1