It’s been five years since I started this journey of being an oncologist.

I still remember the day I joined, when my HOD asked me, “Why oncology?” — and I was blank.

Maybe this little piece of writing is my way of understanding whether that answer has finally begun to take shape.

If you ask us how our day was, we often don’t know how to answer.

Some days are unbearably heavy — seeing someone get diagnosed, watching a disease progress, or facing outcomes that words can never soften. But in the same journey, we also witness some of the happiest moments: when treatment works, when a patient becomes disease-free, when hope quietly wins against fear.

As oncologists, we are not just treating a patient.

We are holding together an entire family, and sometimes even a whole community.

The journey of a cancer patient is rarely measured in days or months; it is often years. And somewhere alongside them, the doctor journeys too — treating, learning, leading, grieving, healing, and growing with every patient they meet.

But oncologists need healing too.

It is one of the heaviest professions to carry mentally and emotionally. There are days when the exhaustion is invisible, when the mind carries stories long after the hospital lights are turned off. Sometimes, it is only the smallest moments of happiness that keep us going.

For me, the privilege of helping someone receive another chance at life is the kind of happiness that stays for a very long time.

This is just a small shout-out to every oncologist, nurse, technician, resident, and oncology staff member who shows up every single day with the same spirit — carrying positivity, strength, and hope into the lives of patients and their families.

We may have heavy days,

but most days still carry hope.

Dr. Jaswanthi A R

MBBS, MD (Radiation Oncology)

Consultant – Radiation Oncologist