JLF: Manisha Koirala On Battling Last-Stage Cancer And Emerging As A Fearless Survivor
“It was one of the loneliest, most excruciating nights of my life. I had traveled a zillion times from Kathmandu, my home, to Mumbai but it felt like it was taking a lifetime to reach my destination as if everyone on the flight was staring at me… as if they all knew that I had been diagnosed with last stage ovarian cancer.”
In 2012, when renowned actor Manisha Koirala was diagnosed with cancer, her fans were praying for her recovery, her family and friends were running around from pillar to post in hopes of saving her. Manisha herself was herself going through the five stages of grief- denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.
Some may say that the sole reason of her miraculous recovery was the fact that she has money to avail the best doctors- true and she herself agrees to it. But what even her doctors appreciated in her was her spirit to live, to fight a deadly disease.
“I am no hero, I am not going to say that I was not afraid of dying. But yes, somewhere I had the peaceful thought in mind that if it is my time to go, well, nothing will change that. But meanwhile, if I don’t try my best to survive, to prove life that I am worth it, then no one could be a bigger coward than me,” Manisha shared during her session at the Jaipur Literature Festival as the crowd cheered for her indomitable spirit.
Seeing Manisha in person, I hence had proof that this woman who holds viewers’ attention with her mesmerizing presence on the silver screen, is pretty apt at working the same magic in person too.