One of Bollywood’s most evolved actors, Ayushmann Khurrana’s wife Tahira Kashyap, who was first diagnosed with cancer in 2018, has been actively talking about her journey since then. On World Cancer Day, Audible touches upon Ayushmann’s feelings, experiences, and thoughts during his wife’s long battle with breast cancer through the podcast ‘My ex-Breast’.
On Ayushmann finding out about Tahira’s breast cancer for the first time: Ayushmann and Tahira recall the first time they heard of Tahira’s cancer, “We were together in Delhi when we got to know about it from a doctor, we didn’t know at all. Ayushmann adds on this jarring experience that threw their world into a chaos. “There was a time when both of us were very vulnerable sitting in a hospital. Again, you know people are asking for pictures where we were sitting by. I was hiding behind a pillar, the security guy and feeling terrible.”
Ayushmann recalls how Nichiren Buddhism helped his wife, Tahira Kashyap, cope with one of her darkest moments in life. He tells Tahira: “ It gave you the strength to fight head-on. Now you are the victorious queen in front of me. I was happy that you are emotionally strong in a way that you are going to tackle this and fight this. We were together in this fight, but I was getting so inspired by you that you’ve probably become stronger than me.” He adds “You have a great presence. It doesn’t come from your hairstyle, it comes from your chanting, your practice, the person you’ve become, your experiences in life and sum of everything.”
Ayushmann adds, “Women in India often find it very difficult to have open conversations when it comes to physicality and talking about subjects like breasts. While talking about Tahira’s breast examination experience Ayushmann states, “Life is very important and it’s precious. It’s not just for you but for your kids and for your family. Start loving yourself. Self-love is most important. Yes, it’s very underrated but at the same time, if you’re selfless and you have self-love you will get it (breasts) examined and never think twice before going for checkups. You have to do it regularly and for yourself and also for family at the same time. You can’t be having like a lackadaisical attitude towards it. You have to be proactive towards it. Because otherwise cancer spreads every minute, every hour and you need to fix it as soon as possible.”
On confidence in body transformation: Going through physical turmoil and feeling insecure about herself, Tahira Kashyap had turned to Ayushmann for comfort. “When I saw you for the first time, it’s like a bald head walking confidently. I was like wow this is so hot, seriously because your strength was everything, it was part of the personality. Your shoulders were always upright, you were never lacking confidence.” He adds, “Some of me feels you look better now. It’s just like version 2.0 of Tahira.”
