Tannishtha Chatterjee Instagram
How does one wish you a happy birthday after what you are going through?
Just wish that the cancer would go away. Every day is a struggle . Every morning I wake up thankful for being alive.
Your friends and family must be a blessing?
Oh, I couldn’t have gone through this without them. They’ve all come to the hospital so many times. And, you know, and just being there, have come home and reassured my mom. They all have been taking turns, you know, to come to the hospital and do whatever. There is no other thing in this world that is worth living for, except for people who love you.
You should make a film on your battle with disease
You know, I am actually writing a play. And Sharib Hashmi and I ill be performing it. But it’s a comedy, okay? Well, yes, it’s nice to laugh in the face of death sometimes. I just had to obviously express myself somehow.
Have you seen that brilliant film I Want To Talk on a cancer survivor?
Yeah, I have seen it. It was absolutely brilliant. I liked it a lot. Yeah, I empathized with the guy Arjun Sen’s struggle? Yeah, and also his resilience and his humor. And health insurance is pathetic for him in the US and the same for me here. If the disease doesn’t kill, the medical costs kill. It is very expensive. I have moved in with my mother and I’ve put my place on rent. And it is financially, it’s obviously taking a huge toll.
You’re such a brave woman. I truly admire you.
When I was diagnosed I was broken, absolutely. But then it took me a little while to… Like the first ten days, I didn’t tell anyone. I thought, why me? First thought is why me. And then every report was positive. Every day it was like just… Positive reports means like, I mean, actually negative health, right? This is the one place where you don’t want to be positive. One positive after another. And I kept my reports in the car and I didn’t tell my mom because if I carried the reports up to my home, she would have known. And I was trying to figure out how to tell her. But I was devastated. I was crying in the car. And then I had to put up this brave front when I was like coming home for my daughter Radhika and for my mom.
But you’re on top of it now?
Yeah, yeah. I mean, that was in the beginning. Your entire life coming crashing down. But then you fight back. You have to.
