When Bill Gates said “Life’s not fair, get used to it,” he definitely meant it. And some are living by what the genius once said. At a recent even held at the Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals for cancer survivors, we met an ordinary lady, leading an extraordinary life. Nutan Pandit, survivor of acute blood cancer, who is an artist and she paints to heal and raise hope among other patients.
Suffering from cancer for more than 10 years now, the journey was not an easy for Nutan. “It was just another day in my life when I complained of headache and bleeding gums. I went to a family doctor who immediately suggested that I should see a specialist in Apollo. After being detected of cancer, I was under observation in ICU for three days. I wasn’t told what was happening. It was after two months of treatment, when the chemotherapy sessions had to be started, I was told I’m suffering from cancer,” she says.
However, she braved the odds and continued working, went to school and did what life demanded of her. “Even when I didn’t have hair, I went to the school, and my entire school was very supportive. Everyone donated money and helped me,” she says.
She completed her diploma from Chandigarh after which she worked with DAV school. After serving at various colleges in Punjab, she got married and came to Delhi. And then a series of unfortunate events changed the course of her life.
“The circumstances went against me. I got married in 1985, and my husband passed away soon so I had to work as my child was too young. I didn’t tell my son about my disease for a long time as he was only in class nine at that time. It was too much to handle,” she tells us.
The doctors told her she would live for at least eight years. She is happy at just being alive even today. However, painting for the brave lady has been her strength throughout. “After I got to know about the disease, I didn’t paint for one year. And then I started depicting the emotions of a lady through my works. It was difficult to express in words how I felt, so painting was my way of expressing myself on the canvas. My son is my inspiration. I continue to live for him,” she says.
Working on a series of colourful flowers, her works will soon be presented at Apollo hospital under an exhibition titled ‘Hope to Live, Live to Hope’. “I want to tell people that life is beautiful and so I paint using colourful hues. One should never give up hope,” she signs off.