What would happen if your life turned around completely in a day? The unexpected and heart-breaking loss of a loved one, the impulsive conception of a baby, the fortuitous reunion with an adopted twin, the unanticipated life-imprisonment for a crime not committed, the prodigious inheritance of an undeserved fortune or the startling loss of all your material possessions, an acid attack or an awakening, the loss of sight or deeper insight. Would we be ready, if any of these were to happen to us? 

A few years ago, my cousin delivered a gorgeous cherubic baby boy. Ours is a family of over a hundred people, so there is no such thing as a contained celebration; the hospital security found it hard to regulate visitors. And then, we were given unnerving news. On Day 4, just as they were to return home, the baby was observed as having some unusually brief jerky movements in his limbs. He began blinking his eyes unconventionally. His mother knew instantly that something was amiss, and an astute neurologist recognised these to be seizures, or, as we understand them, epileptic fits. An EEG confirmed the diagnosis and an MRI done at one week of life showed an abnormality over the right half of his brain.