SUGAR HUSH

While the link between diet and diabetes is well known, recent studies show how diabetes can go in remission with a low-calorie diet and regular exercise

- Nirmal Jovial

As the afternoon sun beats down on the coastal village of Veli in Thiruvananthapuram, William Pereira, 57,sits down to lunch. His plate is a canvas of colours, with a generous serving of fruit and vegetable salad, a modest portion of rice, sambar and fish curry. His food was not always this colourful, varied and measured.

Pereira is a loco pilot with the Indian Railways. He started his career as an assistant loco pilot at the age of 25 in the Madras division. Over the years, he has held various positions, including goods train driver, yard shunter and passenger train driver before becoming a loco pilot of express trains. "The nature of my job is such that if one day it is night duty, the other day it is day duty," says Pereira. "It is not a nine-to-five job. As assistant loco pilot, you have to work on all sorts of trains. In goods trains, you may have to spend 96 hours or more. Owing to the nature of this job, having nutritious meals on time has been a challenge."

But his body, like the trains he manoeuvred, worked like clockwork. That is until July 2020. Pereira was at home owing to the pandemic-induced lockdown, and his body started showing signs that all was not well. "I was thirsty always, and I frequented the toilet to pee," he says. "Then I spoke to [diabetologist and researcher] Dr Sreejith N. Kumar, who was my classmate at Government Model School, Thiruvananthapuram. He asked for details of any history of diabetes in the family. My mother was diabetic. So, he asked me to check the blood sugar level, and meet him with the results."