My mum has always been one of my idols! Throughout my younger years I saw her as a woman ahead of her times. In those days, being a working woman, a proficient senior general manager in a multinational company was something which we, all three of her daughters, were in awe of. Through her we knew many other women of her age who were equally accomplished. One such lady was with the ITC group and she was as good as family to us. When I passed out of school in 1990, she was the first lady I approached because I wanted to work somewhere and she offered me a job. I still remember those days when I would go to the ITC office. As a 17 year old I knew this is where I wanted to be and this is the place I wanted to work at. That was my first job experience and everything was wonderful. I used to look at my aunt and get inspired by her achievements and her confidence. At the same time, she was very down to earth, extremely humble, nice and always welcoming.

Life went on, we all got settled, we got married, we all had our own journeys of life. In 2009 I was working with a real estate company when I heard that my aunt was seriously ill. My first thoughts were that she is still young, she’s barely 45. What could be so wrong with her ? I knew she led a healthy lifestyle, she was working in a good place, not someplace hazardous to health, or unhygienic, or anything like that. We finally discovered that she was suffering from last stage of cancer. She had basically ignored the symptoms that she had and unfortunately, as accomplished as she was, with all the medical facilities that she had, she couldn’t make it beyond 4 months. Within the same period of time another aunt of mine whom I was close to, again very talented, quite comfortably off, had everything going for her; had ignored symptoms and was diagnosed with cancer. She also did not make it. In a span of 6 months I had lost 2 ladies in my life whom I thought were not only beautiful women, but intelligent women. Women who could get anything in life that they wanted. I realised educated women like them had ignored their lives, had ignored their health, ignored the symptoms. Why would somebody do that ? Being in the corporate world at that time myself I also realised that I hardly had time for anything myself. I would go in the morning, come back at night. Even if there were signs of anything being wrong, tiredness or anything like that one would just pop a pill and go back to work the next day. So these are the things educated women like us do and there started the journey of Festival of Hope. I met a few ladies from the Indian Cancer Society while I was working and they came to me looking for funds. I decided to do things a little differently. I did not want to just send out a note to people asking for donations, because when it comes to donating on a personal level there are too many conditions attached and when it comes to donating on a corporate level then there are more conditions attached. Everybody is looking for a tax rebate, everybody is looking for a 80G, a 12A, all kind of certifications which are only very time consuming as far as I’m concerned. So we decided to do a fundraiser and we decided to sell donor cards. We had dinner and drinks and a fashion event included in it which made it exciting enough for people to pick up those cards and participate. I realised it was very important to do fundraisers where there was personal participation. The money is not so much that you think twice before you decide to pick up a card. Till date we have had successful events across Mumbai, Delhi and Jaipur. We have touched several lives through each event that we’ve done. Top designers have collaborated with us, influential people have participated with us, supported us and helped us. Our concept in Festival of Hope Foundation has always remained that we do not take any charity or any money into the foundation, any donations that come to us are directed towards a hospital patient wherein the money is directly given to the hospital for the patient who needs the treatment. Cancer is something which is very serious, it is taking over the world.

There isn’t a single household today that has not heard of it or has not known someone who has experienced it. The point remains, you need to be aware of the symptoms, you need to get timely treatment, and you need to deal with it in a very strong manner. Your willpower, your attitude, your positivity will help a lot in overcoming this deadly disease. So please people, come out, support Festival of Hope. Join the movement that we’ve started where people of all age groups; men, women, families have gotten together to support the need for spreading awareness about cancer. Come together to make yourself aware of what cancer is and yes, it’s not always fatal! There is always life beyond cancer, is the message that we’re trying to give out. So come together, join the Festival of Hope. We hope you find our Webzine enriching and informative. In the end, there is just one thing left to say: You live once… live well…live healthy… love yourself a little more!

Thank You!