New Delhi: Two years ago, when Nandita Thakur was diagnosed with breast cancer, her family threw a tequila party. Why? “Because I’d be shaving my head before chemotherapy. And ‘takla’ sounds like ‘tequila’,” the 59-year-old says. That’s how they decided to break the news to her extended family and friends.Nandita says the move seemed strange to many, but she flaunted her “Persis Khambatta look” — named after the Miss India 1965 winner, who made waves by going bald for ‘Star Trek: The Motion Picture’.Jenus Pannu Kohli (45) had a relapse of brain cancer last year. It felt like, she jokes, entering the marriage market again. “Looking for a doctor is exactly like going through a matrimonial website. You have to apply filters and figure out who suits you.”Nandita and Jenus are part of a group, in the 32 to 62 age range, who will perform a comedy show at India International Centre in Delhi on Saturday. Called ‘Comedy In Chaos’, the show brings together 10 women, most of them breast cancer survivors, and one man, a colon cancer survivor, all of whom want to tell the world what they went through — and to stop looking at them with pity.The idea began to form in Rohini Khuller’s mind after an appointment with her doctor three years ago. “After my treatment, my doctor said, ‘I wish we had more cancer warriors like you’. I told her I do not want to be called a warrior because I want to go back to living my regular life,” the 62-year-old learning consultant from Delhi says. “And my doctor said she wished we could normalise conversations around cancer. And that’s when it struck me.”
Cancer comics jamming with members of ‘Dirty Class’, a music band that’s set to perform at the show
Actor Tannishtha Chatterjee, who turned her cancer journey into ‘Breast of Luck’, a light-hearted play that debuted in Jan this year, served as an inspiration. “We swung into action pretty soon after that. We divided duties. I did content, someone else took up marketing, another design, and so on,” says Manisha Kapur (56), a content writer and data consultant.Manisha was on vacation when she felt something wrong in her breast. She collapsed in the shower soon after. “I was in Hampi and I felt lumpy,” she jokes. For the show, Manisha dons the character of ‘Mannu Punjabi’, who is visiting A doctor with her sister for treatment. During her 10-minute skit, the doctor tells her she will need a gene test. “Doctor saab, main jean nahi pehenti, tang lagti hai (Doctor, I don’t wear jeans, they’re too tight),” Mannu Punjabi declares.Ujala Makhija, a 46-year-old homemaker, brings up profundity of the counsel she was given over the years. “Cancer se mujhe free ka life advice mila (cancer gave me free life advice) — to eat greens and follow a healthy lifestyle,” she says.Along with their families and friends, cheering them on from the audience will be the many doctors who have stood by them. “The group came to me with the idea of wanting to perform a light-hearted take on cancer. I told them that institutionally I could not support it, because this bunch is very positive but there are many who can have negative reactions,” says Dr Aditi Chaturvedi, breast oncoplastic surgeon at Apollo Hospitals in Delhi.“In a personal capacity, however,” she adds, “I am extremely happy they are doing this.”Khuller sums up everything — the only thing — they are trying to say. “We don’t want to be preachy. We don’t want to tell our sob stories. All we want is for people to know that there can be life beyond cancer.”
