Cancer has changed my mindset: Tahira Kashyap

Mumbai: Writer-director and Bollywood actor Ayushmann Khurrana's wife Tahira Kashyap has documented her journey battling cancer on social media.

From sharing a series of photographs of herself showing how chemotherapy affected her to talking about the change in her attitude towards life due to the disease, Tahira on Saturday took to Instagram to open up about her struggles on being a cancer patient.

Dedicating her post "to women of all shapes and sizes and to all those posts I get when they fret losing their hair during or after chemotherapy", she wrote: "I am hoping there is a change in the perception of that one perfect flavour that we have always had. 

"The last couple of months have been an extreme case of metamorphosis for me. And I am not categorising it whether it was from a caterpillar to a butterfly phase or vice-versa. I could be the larva or the pupa or any other intermediate stage as each phase is unique and special. 

"But there is a deep sense of acceptance when it comes to the life cycle of this creature. Taking a 'leaf' from this caterpillar's life, I feel I have undergone a tremendous change mentally and physically too. 

"From my obsession with long hair, associating beauty with rapunzel tresses, and hiding most of the time behind my hair (as I felt secure, lest my crooked nose, or freckles or pimples or simply not so chiseled face isn't exposed) to losing my hair, wearing extensions and a cap, going bald to now a short crop, I am enjoying every phase because somehow with hair I lost my insecurity, my stupid notion of beauty and my complexes."

She doesn't know whether she will be keeping long hair or not, "in either case I am not going to hide my face".

"I have changed my own mindset and my biggest victory is changing the mindset and perception of my seven-year-old-son, the next generation. From running to get a cap and placing it on my head when I was losing my hair and had a bald patch to proudly introducing me to his friends when I was bald or now with short hair, I feel I am a part of a change," she added.

On September 22 last year, Tahira revealed that she was detected with DCIS (ductal carcinoma in situ) in her right breast with high-grade malignant cells.