Dakshana bascaramurty biography

This is a page-turner, an easy read. And, most surprisingly, a balm. It is a generous book, and one that affirms the humanity of its subject, its author and, yes, its reader. The human condition is complicated and painful and fleeting, This Is Not the End of Me insists, but it is also exquisite. And there are people, Layton Reid and Dakshana Bascaramurty among them, who show us just how beautiful it all is, even in dark and difficult times.

People who, ultimately, bring us together. Expand your mind and build your reading list with the Books newsletter. Sign up today. Report an editorial error. Report a technical issue. Editorial code of conduct. This is a space where subscribers can engage with each other and Globe staff. Non-subscribers can read and sort comments but will not be able to engage with them in any way.

Click here to subscribe. Want to read. Rate this book. Dakshana Bascaramurty. The moving, inspiring story of a young husband and father who, when diagnosed with terminal cancer at the age of 33, sets out to build a legacy for his infant son. I can only describe to you how I feel today. At peace. A giant, spiky, flowering heart-shaped bouquet of contradictions.

Layton Reid was a globe-trotting, risk-taking, sunshine-addicted bachelor - then came a melanoma diagnosis. Cancer startled him out of his arrested development - he returned home to Halifax to work as a wedding photographer - and remission launched him into a new, passionate life as a husband and father-to-be. When the melanoma returned, now at Stage IV, Layton and his family put all their stock into a punishing alternative therapy, hoping for a cure.

With incredible intimacy, grit, and empathy, reporter Dakshana Bascaramurty casts an unsentimental eye on who her good friend was: his effervescence, his twisted wit, his anger, his vulnerability. Interweaving Layton's own reflections - his diaries written for Finn, his letters to his wife, Candace, and his public journal - she paints a keenly observed portrait of Layton's remarkable evolution.

In detailing the ugly, surprising, and occasionally funny ways in which Layton and his family faced his mortality, the audiobook offers an unflinching look at how a person dies, and how we dakshana bascaramurty biography build a legacy in our information-saturated age. Loading interface About the author. Dakshana Bascaramurty 1 book 9 followers. Write a Review.

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book! Community Reviews. Search review text. Displaying 1 - 30 of 67 reviews. Toronto-based reporter Dakshana Bascaramurty met Layton Reid when he photographed her wedding: their immediate connection was unusually strong, and although Reid eventually relocated to Halifax, the pair remained in friendly communication.

While Reid began a series of legacy-related posts on Facebook, he and Bascaramurty decided to collaborate on a memoir as well, with This Is Not the End of Me being the result. I will say that Bascaramurty successfully captured this end-of-life story — warts and all, the stresses acting on Reid and his entire family — and in a world where death is hidden away and caregivers are reluctant to complain, there is real value in sharing a story like this.

I just expected to feel more. It was a strange spot to be in.

Dakshana bascaramurty biography: Dakshana Bascaramurty was not born,

I recorded most of our conversations and took notes every time we talked, whether I was scrawling them in a notebook or typing them in my laptop. I was now emotionally invested in Layton in the way I was with any of my close friends. Though he had seven years on me, I thought of him as like a younger brother I adored and felt protective of.

Still, I never lost sight of the fact that I was also writing about him and his family. Sometimes, I wondered if he routinely forgot that, despite constant reminders that I was planning to document his story. He often told me I was the closest thing he had to a shrink, and while I was flattered that he trusted me so much, hearing this also made me squirm.

Thousands of freshly-prepared glasses of juice and thousands of self-administered coffee enemas later all of which was hugely costly in terms of money, time, and effortand eventually, the brain tumours came back and Reid and his family needed to face the fact that he was nearing the end of his life. There is much to learn from in this book, and beyond the tragic story of one man and his family, it serves to bring the reality of a cancer diagnosis and death out into the public realm.

I knew Layton as a colleague and friend, which makes this book hard to review in any meaningful way.

Dakshana bascaramurty biography: Dakshana Bascaramurty is The Globe

It was glorious to hear his voice again, and Bascaramurty did a wonderful job of weaving together this joyful tragedy. Francine Kopun. Dakshana Bascaramurty is a tremendous writer. I admire her restraint. This book is about a dying man, but never once did it feel maudlin. She has a keen eye for detail which is critical in a book like this, an intimate account of a young family struggling with terminal cancer.

Dakshana bascaramurty biography: Dakshana Bascaramurty was assigned to the

I hope Bascaramurty is tackling something new because I will read anything this woman writes. I promise. This is the story of an just ordinary guy: husband, father, son, fighting the battle of his life. I felt the author brought the essence of his character to life through the pages, and this was also heightened with the inclusion of his own words.

You get a sense of his values, the love for his family, the turmoil they all faced, and, ultimately, his strength in facing the unthinkable head on; knowing when to fight and when to let go. There was so much depth here and a raw human quality and, because of this, I was often moved to tears. The storytelling is quietly emotional, authentic, and deeply personal.

Dakshana bascaramurty biography: Carleton University Graphic ·

Thank you to Netgalley for this arc. With incredible intimacy, grit, and empathy, reporter Dakshana Bascaramurty casts an unsentimental eye on who her good friend was: his effervescence, his twisted wit, his anger, his vulnerability. Interweaving Layton's own reflections--his diaries written for Finn, his letters to his wife, Candace, and his public journal--she paints a keenly observed portrait of Layton's remarkable evolution.

In detailing the ugly, surprising, and occasionally funny ways in which Layton and his family faced his mortality, the book offers an unflinching look at how a person dies, and how we might build a legacy in our information-saturated age. Powerful and unvarnished, This is Not the End of Me is about someone who didn't get a very happy ending, but learned to squeeze as much life as possible from his final days.

This is her first book. An immersive, beautifully detailed portrait of a young family learning to cope with illness, it will resonate long after the final page is read. In the case of Layton Reid, who died at 37, a terminal cancer diagnosis led him to try to condense decades of love, marriage and fatherhood into a mere handful of years.

This is a book about the profound, fragile and beautiful condition of being human. Dakshana Bascaramurty provides an intimate glimpse of the more common, not-always-rosy reality: The loneliness, fear, desperation, grieving and loss experienced by cancer patients and their families. This Is Not the End of Me is not always an easy read but a necessary one—an enlightening exploration of coming to terms with mortality.

Somehow, Dakshana Bascaramurty did. It's too easy to be bubbled in to our circles, politics and perspectives and see the world through our own narrow lens. With my stories, I hope readers can enter into spaces they don't normally see and develop empathy for people and communities they don't regularly interact with. Bachelor of Journalism with combined honours in History, Carleton University.

National Newspaper Award for Beat Reporting - National Newspaper Award for Project of the Year dakshana bascaramurty biography - Skip to main content. Dakshana Bascaramurty. Staff Reporter Food culture reporter Halifax. Area of Expertise Food culture; Race and ethnicity. She started her career writing about technology, social media and money for Globe Life.