{"id":225492,"date":"2014-09-29T13:25:28","date_gmt":"2014-09-29T07:55:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tehelka.com\/?p=225492"},"modified":"2014-09-29T13:25:28","modified_gmt":"2014-09-29T07:55:28","slug":"i-realised-i-dont-have-to-become-that-cancer-just-because-i-have-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/i-realised-i-dont-have-to-become-that-cancer-just-because-i-have-it\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I realised I don\u2019t have to become that cancer just because I have it\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure id=\"attachment_225493\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-225493\" style=\"width: 320px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-225493\" alt=\"anita-kumar\" src=\"http:\/\/www.tehelka.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/anita-kumar.jpg\" width=\"320\" height=\"453\" data-id=\"225493\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-225493\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><strong>Anita Kumar\u00a0<\/strong>48, artist-Author<\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\n<strong>Were you inclined towards writing since an early age?<\/strong><br \/>\nAs a child I had an inclination for words and I often admired writers. Funnily enough, sometimes when my daughters pushed their homework towards me, they\u2019d end up scoring an A grade on the synopsis and essays that I had written for them. It gave me a confidence in my writing. During the three years between my separation and divorce, I experienced a flurry of emotions. I poured them into articles to let women know that every ending has a new beginning. This led to my first book, <em>Turning the Page<\/em>.<br \/>\n<strong>From personal accounts of spirituality to writing <em>Delhi: Anything Goes<\/em>, a fiction, what marked the transition?<\/strong><br \/>\nAfter the first two books were published, my friends joked about the change they saw in my demeanour. I don\u2019t think of myself as someone who is serious all the time, so I was a bit offended and began looking for something that brings out the humour in me. Writing a novel about Delhi\u2019s elite crowd helped me strike a balance between the spiritual and the social. Versatility, I believe, is good and therefore I don\u2019t like to be categorised in one particular genre.<br \/>\n<strong>Any personal instances which helped you write the book?<\/strong><br \/>\nI could write about the Page 3 crowd because I have been a part of it. I understand their activities and psychology. It is not a judgmental account but merely a nudge, telling people that maybe awakening isn\u2019t a bad idea. You see people running away from themselves, harbouring a deep sense of insecurity and their thoughts are occupied with the next best party. The book is merely an attempt to say that\u2019s there\u2019s more to life than this.<br \/>\n<strong>All your works have a recurrent theme of detachment. What does it mean to you?<\/strong><br \/>\nDetachment is a journey. You become a spectator and learn from your experiences without getting emotionally involved in them. This way you enter the room of forgiveness and there\u2019s no scope for regret. It requires you to take a step back and view things from an objective perspective. My battle with breast cancer taught me that I don\u2019t have to become that cancer just because I have it. It helps you look at life in a light hearted manner and not wallow in self-pity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>UK born Anita Kumar wrote Turning the Page, her autobiography in 2012. The book went on to generate a positive response, following which she penned Divine Light, a book on her spiritual undertaking. A trained calligrapher and practising artist who divides her time between Manchester, New York and Delhi, Anita\u2019s latest book, Delhi: Anything Goes, marks her fiction debut. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74,"featured_media":225494,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[21],"tags":[7766,8008,5901,8009,8010,5728,8011,8012],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225492"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/users\/74"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}