Tahira Kashyap has been inspiring several others ever since she shared her struggle with breast cancer
Tahira Kashyap
Tahira Kashyap turned a year older on January 21 but the partying continues. Yesterday, Ayushmann Khurrana's wife celebrated with breast cancer survivors at the Tata Memorial Hospital.
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The author has been inspiring several others ever since she shared her struggle with breast cancer and how to emerge triumphant. "I enjoyed meeting these amazing and brave women. I learnt so much from them. Celebrating my birthday with them was a great honour," says Kashyap who is directing a short film, Pinni.
For Kashyap, cancer wasn't her first brush with an illness that would change her life. "I've been on a high dose of thyroid medication since college. I recall, following my diagnosis, the doctor told me to not tell anyone about my condition since it would hamper my chances of getting married. As soon as I was out, I told Ayushmann. He said, 'Okay, we'll deal with it, but what is it, anyway?'"
"I never treated my body, mind and soul as one entity. I always thought physical health was important, and mental toh kuch hota hi nahin hai. So, I exercised a lot. But I think [the cancer] was a manifestation of the negativity that I had been harbouring. Had I gone to a doctor, I would have been declared clinically depressed. But I chose to cry every night instead of visiting one. I was living a dual life. My husband was shooting; I would spend hours at night crying, and put up the front of a happy person in the morning so that I didn't look like a loser before my children, who were aged two and four then. It was only after I practised Buddhist chanting, and focused on my mental health that things changed. In a way, I'm glad that [I was diagnosed with cancer] at a time when I was strong enough to deal with it."
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