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We were in the ward, right? I almost lost track, thanks to log 5. Phew!! It was only after moving to the ward that I came to know what had happened to me. Up until then, my mind just knew that something went wrong – I’m in a hospital, duh! I can’t move my left side; and so what if I’m in the hospital? I will be out in a jiffy; must be nothing serious! To my utter disbelief, my family told me that I had suffered from intracerebral bleeding – Brain haemorrhage. Or in the layman’s language, bleeding in my brain, which led to my left hemiplegia – my left side going cold on me. So, to make this a bit more colourful for you, my right half of the brain was (literally) submerged in blood. And due to this, my brain had decided to revolt and swell. The doctor had to cut out a near palm-sized portion of the right side of my skull to allow the brain to swell in peace (they, of course, preserved the bone flap in cryo). It is safe to say that I now resembled a Martian – my head was a horizontally asymmetrical oblong alien head . Despite all this, the ward was still pretty fun from day one of moving in. Everyday people would pour in to meet me. While most people came in clans and tribes, there were some, like my best friends, who would just drop in, company or not. It did not matter that I was unable to speak or move without a wheelchair. My visitors and I always succeeded at communicating with each other perfectly well. In that hospital room, and sometimes the corridors and the reception, you would see communication at its creative best – gestures, lip sync, white boards, and even a bit of mind reading 😉. It was true that the frequency of visitors had increased many-fold while I was in the ward, but they had started flooding in during the ICU phase itself. In fact, I remember quite a few of my friends had come as soon as the news was out that I was back into this realm. These visits were very crucial for my mind as it prevented me from going… well, insane – staring at white walls all day is not exactly the healthiest thing for your mind. And they gave my mind something to stay connected to with the real world. It was also what gave me some hope to cling on to, as well as the unrelenting drive to get back to everything. Alongside all of this, it seemed like my parents & doctors were making preparations for the next big step in my recovery process. What was it going to be?? The secret talks, mumbling and whispering, talking through the eyes, all that spy code and suspense was a bit baffling. Since it was a “surprise” for me, it should be a surprise for you too…