A very poignant article from the Sept. 1, 2019 New York Times: Waiting for the Monsoon, Discovering a Brain Tumor Instead. The photo of reporter Rod Nordland’s journal was what caught my eye, but the whole story is well worth reading. A few brief excerpts below, focusing, of course, on the journal, though there is a lot more to the tale…

I routinely give titles to my journals, in which I have long recorded interviews, appointments, odd thoughts and cris de coeur. My journal commencing June 17, 2019, is called, “Waiting for the Monsoon.” …
On the morning of July 4, I left Delhi for Uttar Pradesh to report a story on India’s feverish toilet-building campaign. I was out on the street most of the day, when I noticed ink in my journal was smudged with raindrops. “The monsoon has arrived,” I noted.

The smudged page also contained a fragment of overheard conversation: “We will marry our daughter to you only if you have a foot.” It was the first line of an intriguing story I would never write, because the next day I went for a morning jog in Delhi’s beautiful Lodhi Gardens.

That is really the last thing I remember with certainty. I only learned later that I had, somehow, made my way from the gardens to New Delhi’s Golf Course Colony, several miles away.

This is where a malignant brain tumor, as yet undiagnosed, struck me down and left me thrashing on the ground. …

My journal picks up again on July 8, a Monday, with the pages of the preceding weekend blank, as if they had disappeared from my life. I noted the absence with dismay. At that point, I had been moved to a private hospital, and my journal was full of puzzlement about what had happened. 

Read more: Waiting for the Monsoon, Discovering a Brain Tumor Instead