Arjun Sen (61) adores numbers. Maybe it’s because he’s a marketing executive. But beyond the corner office, too, this sync persists. A conversation with the multihyphenate — he’s a podcast host, author, entrepreneur, and motivational speaker — reveals how digits have dictated much of his life. In 1996, Arjun was handed a prognosis of ‘100 days to live’ following a diagnosis of laryngeal cancer that had metastasised to the stomach. Then followed 20-odd surgeries — a race against time to beat the invasive cancer that was making inroads into his body systems.

His forte has always been numbers. And so, when from my list of interview questions, he tells me he’s biased toward number 10, I smile. Case in point.

You enjoy making people laugh. Did you find it in yourself to celebrate the small wins while you underwent treatment? Did you have any semblance of joy?

Question 10 unplugged a heavy stream of emotion. Because the dichotomy, you see, is where Arjun lived for the duration of his treatment. For someone who was the life of the party, effortlessly witty, wore his humour on his sleeve, and couldn’t sustain a conversation without cracking a joke, being told he was dying must have put a damper on his spirits, I presume. Arjun doesn’t deny it.

He watched as normalcy was disrupted, giving way to rigorous chemotherapy, radiation, and pain.

Arjun was confronted with two options: to laugh or cry.

Which emotion did he indulge? Both, he clarifies. But the former won.

“You can’t always be taking life so seriously,” he reasons. If you ever meet Arjun, you won’t have to worry too much about breaking the ice. Leave it to him. He’ll introduce himself as ‘the world’s first sit-down comedian’, who guarantees that ‘one person will always laugh at his jokes’. Himself. It’s his way of saying he’ll always find the ‘happy’ in a situation — a knack that stood him in good stead during his prognosis.

Battling cancer meant making optimism the touchstone of his life. Control what you can, and surrender the rest, he figured. But, it’s easier said than done.

There were moments of grief and angst. He tried his best, however, to temper worry with hope, to........

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