Interview Times A renowned boy from Odisha Kamal Kumar who started his career over two decades ago has dreamt of a vibrant career and never thought of a terminal illness at the peak of his journalistic career. Kamal is fighting with a cancerous brain tumor.
At the very beginning of his career, he came to Bhubaneswar from the small town of Rourkela. With a certificate of Television Direction & Production in hand, he started looking for a job and later landed a job as a journalist. Kamal wanted to start his career as a Production Assistant in a regional new channel Odisha TV, and so he did.
Kamal’s eagerness and enthusiasm towards work took him to several places and organizations across the Middle East, North America, and the Indian subcontinent in a span of over 20 years.
In his long career, he has worked as an Editor, Senior Producer, and a member of the launch team of AJ+, Al Jazeera’s first all-digital network; as Managing Editor and Senior Producer in TRT World, global English language channel of Turkish National broadcaster TRT; and as a freelance Video Journalist for British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC); covering stories on politics, human rights, natural history, conflict resolution, insurgency, art, and culture.
Kamal’s life completely turned when he returned to India from Turkey and got an opportunity to do a documentary on child abuse. It was while he was preparing for the project by the end of 2020, he experienced an excruciating headache and loss of vision.
He just paused his work and rushed back home. Then he visited the hospital and after CT scan and MRI, Kamal was diagnosed with GBM wild type, a brain tumor.
He was asked for immediate surgery and complete removal of the tumor. Kamal’s family took him to Fortis Memorial Research Institute, Gurugram, where his operation was done on December 29, 2020. The results of the biopsy of his tumor said that it was cancerous and that too of the last stage. But neither he nor his surgeon and family lost their hopes. Whatever resources his sisters, friends, and father from his pension funds could pull out for his treatment has helped him to be on his feet so far.
Kamal says “I am very lucky to have my friends, brothers, and sisters stand with me at this moment. I am struggling because of the disease and personal reasons, but there are millions of people out there who are in a worse situation than me,”.
He presently has an offer from the China Global Television Network to join as Editor, International News Desk, but the Covid-19 pandemic and his health condition are playing spoilsport.
Contact Kamal: kamalpkumar@gmail.com
