About sam-bhava

Why this exists

My mother has spent fifty years showing up for our family, every single day. A few years ago, we learned her lungs were scarring — advanced pulmonary fibrosis, the kind that doesn’t reverse. She’s on oxygen support around the clock now, and we keep spare cylinders at home in case the power goes out. There are nights that fear alone can make you feel completely helpless.

I remember searching online at odd hours, trying to understand what happens next, what people in our situation actually do, how families like ours are supposed to cope. Those searches eventually led me to Pallium India — and to a volunteer training programme that was about to begin. It taught me something I hadn’t fully understood until then: that care, at this stage, isn’t about giving up. It’s about dignity, comfort, and love, delivered with real skill.

I enrolled immediately. Sunanda Samal and the rest of the Pallium India team have been extraordinarily generous with their time and knowledge since — this blog exists because of what they taught me, and because I know there are other families out there searching the way I once was, at 2am, afraid and unsure where to turn. My mother, true to who she’s always been, is still involved — she’s even been helping suggest names for this very site.

What this site is — and isn’t

sam-bhava is an educational resource for families in Mumbai navigating serious illness and aging, written in plain language by someone who has sat exactly where you might be sitting now. It is not a clinical service. I’m a certified palliative care volunteer, not a doctor or nurse, and nothing here replaces professional medical care — see our Medical Disclaimer for more on that.

Credentials

I completed Pallium India’s Volunteer Training Programme, and I’ve written about that experience for Pallium India / PalCare Mumbai →.