Hanif Kureishi, a screenwriter nominated for an Oscar, told the BBC that he “saw death” after becoming paralyzed in December following a fall.
On Christmas Day, the award-winning author of My Beautiful Laundrette and The Buddha of Suburbia fell while on vacation in Rome.
The incident rendered him unable of moving his arms and legs.
In his first foreign televised interview, he described how his life has changed at the World Service Newshour.
“Death was talking to me,” he told me, convinced he was about to die. He said he wanted to video-call his children to say goodbye, but his fiancée Isabella D’Amico dissuaded him.
Having evaded death, he is now adjusting to his altered surroundings. He has some sensation in his arms and legs but cannot move.
In a few weeks, according to his physiotherapist, he may be able to handle and use a fork. Millions of people read the words he dictates on his blog about what has occurred to him and what he is learning about himself and the human condition.
He has never written this way before, preferring to write in a notebook with a fountain pen and then revise on a computer.
Now he expresses his thoughts and is astounded by the response; an accident that resulted from an accident.
In the middle of what he describes as constant sadness, he says he often feels alone and sleeps little while listening to the World Service, BBC Radio 3 and 4. He finds some solace in the fact that people admire his writing and are rooting for him.
The words he has dictated have been life-affirming, dark, humorous, and in tune with his reality.
And altered his perspective on impaired individuals: “Suddenly, I walked through the door of illness, and I was transformed.
“Until recently, I had never seriously considered the condition of disabled individuals. There is no family in the world that will not encounter a crippled individual.
“We live in a world of agony and suffering that I had no idea existed, and I want to see the world from their perspective.
“I also intend to establish a charity for injured authors called Metamorphosis, after the Kafka novel.”
His writer pal Salman Rushdie, who was attacked at a literary event in the summer of last year, routinely sends him humorous texts.
According to Kureishi, Rushdie is very secretive and does not discuss what occurred to him.
“However, I do discuss what occurred to me. I must remember my identity as a writer in any manner possible.”
When questioned if he was a patient, he said that he was not. However, he had to be.
He desires the return of his hands so he can write and type. Hanif believes they will, but it may take six months.
He claims that the easy response to the question that sick individuals frequently ask themselves – why me? – came from a schoolmate: why not me?
What leads any of us to believe that we will be the exception, that we will not fall ill?
Kureishi, who is approaching 70 years old, expresses gratitude that it occurred near the end of his life.
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