Exclusive: Tahira Kashyap talks about her battle with breast cancer

Tahira Kashyap. Picture Courtesy: Instagram/tahirakashyap.

Tahira Kashyap has now become a name synonym to courage and fearlessness. The writer, who is Ayushmann Khurrana's wife, was diagnosed with breast cancer on her husband's birthday. Tahira has been a great inspiration throughout, to come out in the open and speak about her illness. Tahira resorted to humour and shared a picture of herself tangled in catheters from the hospital and revealed details about her illness. Kudos to the girl! In an interview with mid-day.com on the occasion of World Cancer Day, the 35-year-old divulged how she sustained through the battle, the force that helped her stay calm, and most importantly, how supportive her husband was.

Excerpts from the interview:

How have you held yourself up in this entire phase? Where did you derive the strength to battle with your illness?
I practise Buddhism and that's where I derived my strength from. It's a phase in yourself, but you need something to make you realise that you can endure the toughest of pains. That external stimulus for me was Buddhism, and I have been chanting and got a lot of clarity. Honestly, had this happened two years ago, I don't think I would have been able to endure it. One of the basics or explanations of Buddhism is if something happens, or an obstacle comes to you, it comes for a reason. The reason is to stretch your limits and become a better version of yourself. So, once I had that clarity in my head I understood that this has only come for me to become a more beautiful version of myself. So, I better enjoy it with a perspective of taking it as a learning process, not just go into a complaining and grudging mode.

How does one mentally prepare oneself after learning that they have been diagnosed with cancer?
You can never mentally prepare yourself for cancer. It comes into your life as a shocker. You have got to respect the unpredictability of life. At the same time, give yourself the power that you can bear everything. There's nothing in this world that you can't tolerate. Ups and downs keep happening in everyone's life; nobody's life is stagnant. If there is an up, there has to be a down and vice versa. Who wants anything bad to happen to them? At the same time, if you make yourself strong enough that no matter what happens I am going to bear it joyously, it is learning. Practically speaking, whenever we are in a good phase of our life, we all say that we should be happy and keep doing it that way, but all this makes sense when you practise all of it during your bad times. So, all that I have been learning through Buddhism or other ways in life now is the time to be actual proof of whatever I have been enduring and talking about. The idea is to genuinely exert in faith.

Ayushmann had two releases around the same time you were diagnosed with the disease. How was the atmosphere at home around that time?
That's life - unpredictable. One aspect of his (Ayushmann) life was at an all-time high. It was the first time he had delivered a 100 cr film (Badhaai Ho) and at the same time, his wife was undergoing chemotherapy. I think both of us made a pact that we are going to do this happily. We both kind of fed off each other's energies, confidence and respect for each other. He has to go out there and work, I respect that and he also had to respect his deadlines. So, there was a lot of understanding between the two of us. I am so proud that he did all of that happily and he was giving all his interviews. I am sure that he did not even remotely exhibit that he is suffering from something. I wouldn't have had it any other way. I kind of wanted him to be around me and not be there where he actually had given his commitment. I respect him for how he has balanced out things. It was pretty tough for him. In the morning he was giving interviews and at night he was coming to the hospital to see me. So, it was a tough time for each one of us but it's how we sailed through.

Have you made any lifestyle changes in your life post-treatment?
Of course, yes! To begin with - not to stress much. It might sound not-so-medical but I feel whatever negativities are there in our life, whether it's stress, insecurities, anxiety, whatever we are going through in our life, if we stress too much over it, it manifests. So, I feel this is definitely a manifestation of some negativity I must have had in the past, and I acknowledge that. Now, I am in a position that I do not want to manifest any negativity in my life. To begin with, that's the biggest lifestyle change. There are stressful situations and there are things due to which you are taken aback unexpectedly. You are taken aback from moments but then there's a better half of me that tells me that I am going to sail through. I am not going to get stressed over it because there's nothing more important than me and my body, which is going to be with me for the rest of my life. That's the closest part you have with yourself. So, you've got to respect your mental and physical health. Apart from that, I have cut off sugar from my diet. Of course, there are a lot of cheat days but predominantly I have tried to stay away from that. I am probably happier and more grateful now. I was very grateful that this thing has happened to me, I know it sounds stupid but I don't know how to explain but I have got the strength and courage to sail through everything.

Do you think there's enough awareness among women about breast cancer, especially in India?
Precisely the reason why I took to social media to explain! When I was going through the process and when I had the surgery, there was absolutely no intention of keeping it a hushed affair. This is the kind of thing that I got from some people, who are very close in my family to me that do not discuss it with people around. But once I started doing the rounds of my mammography, x-rays and go to the doctors, I was really shocked to hear the statistics. The doctors told me that most of the women they are embarrassed to get their mammogram done, their families are embarrassed and so many women...even if they see significant symptom or if they have a lump (in breasts) or anything, they feel embarrassed to share it with their sons or daughters or anyone in the family. They endure it until the time it is out of control. Which is why I took to social media in a humorous way.

With it being World Cancer Day today, what do you think should be done to create awareness among people?
I think there is a fair amount of cancer awareness that is happening in India. I feel if we all be a little more vocal about it, it will lead to awareness. This (Breast cancer) definitely needs more awareness.

Also Read: Tahira Kashyap shares a bold bald image post cancer diagnosis

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