Kuala Lampur, June 25 -- I am back at work after a month of recovery leave.

My mental faculties are surprisingly a lot better than they have been since I first started cancer treatment.

It feels like I no longer have cotton wool for brains though I still have the odd moment where I go downstairs for something and then forget what it is.

I wish I could say the same of my body.

It's recovering but very slowly, besides the wound that has nicely healed up.

Every day is just stretches upon stretches for aching, stubborn muscles.

Each morning I wake up with a now-familiar ache in my shoulders as though I had spent the night in some Sisyphean ritual of pushing a boulder up the nearest hill.

You know, like our civil society groups trying t...