EXCLUSIVE: Tahira Kashyap Feels It Was Courageous Of Shah Rukh Khan To Share His Family's Cancer Stories

Ayushmann Khurrana’s better half is a strong woman. She is someone who has braved one of the deadliest of diseases, she has also had the guts to come out in the open and speak about it. Tahira Kashyap Khurrana is one person who makes sure the cancer awareness is spread far and wide and she truly makes the effort to do it. In an exclusive interview with Desimartini she spoke at length about the arduous journey she has sojourned when detected with breast cancer.

Tahira admits that whenever she talks about her battle with cancer in public, it is very difficult for her because in a way, mentally she has to go through the same thing over and over to relate it to the people but she further states that this doesn’t deter her for speaking about it time and again. Quipped she, “Of course, it is not something so easy. It is very intimate. The disease itself. There is so much of taboo associated with the word ‘cancer’ that for the longest times we didn’t use the word cancer, we would say the big C or the ‘Badi Wali Bimari’ and all of that but we would never say cancer. That’s the amount of taboo and stigma associated with it. It doesn’t come easy to share something so intimate. It didn’t come to me. It was not a cakewalk. Neither it is today, reliving those moments, talking about them. Each time, there is a sort of courage which is needed to talk about it. Because it is like treading the same road and going back to the memories. Though I made beautiful memories even during those years and that journey. Yet...

In one of the episodes of Ted Talks Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan too applauded her for her grit and he went to the extent of admitting, he is influenced by her courage and the way she fought cancer. Tahira feels it is Shah Rukh Khan’s humility to have said that especially when he is at a pedestal where millions are inspired from him. She stated, “Shah Rukh sir is very gracious to say, he is inspired by me, I think he inspires millions but what he did mention was this was the first time that he also shared about the ordeal which he has been going through. He lost his parents to cancer and his sister is also struggling with the same disease. To share this information with the public for the first time also requires a whole lot of courage and kudos to that. I respect and admire him a lot for doing that because a person of that stature coming across and telling means a lot. This is precisely why we are talking about it.

Tahira feels that it is important for people to know, suffering from the disease is nothing to be embarrassed or humiliated about. She asserted, “We need people to talk about it and not feel ashamed about it, to not feel humiliated about it, for women to go for their early breast cancer detection. There is a survivor’s guilt. Apart from that women feel guilty at large for falling sick. There is so much that goes beyond that disease because that disease ultimately is taken care of by the director. There is a lot more on the periphery which needs to be addressed.

Here's The Full Interview -