Against All Odds: How this celebrated designer and National Film Award winner for ‘Utsav’ defeated cancer with courage and calmness

“The thing is that while HER2-positive is a more aggressive cancer, the treatment is usually very effective with a better prognosis. So I was lucky.” It was clearly this attitude that held the designer in good stead when she went to a doctor to check a small growth she felt in her breasts three weeks before she was to take off for Denmark in June 2023 with her husband Nachiket Patwardhan, also an acclaimed designer, architect and filmmaker.

Patwardhan at her home in Bhandarkar road. (Express Photo/Pavan Khengre)

“I had been feeling a mustard seed sized growth in my left breast and another the size of a pea and was advised to have them examined. When the biopsy results came, they were frankly unexpected. I am a well-built person who played basketball and other sports in school and I seriously don’t remember having even a headache anytime, let alone a serious illness. Plus I had always been so active; working as an art director, looking after kids and, when Nachiket would be away, looking after the entire studio on my own. But here was the diagnosis and had to be faced,” she recollects.

“Since I don’t much believe in God, I could not even blame anyone for this. So I did the next best thing, which was to simply accept it,” says Patwardhan. Her family, which includes her 48-year-old son, a sculptor in Pune, and her 52-year-old daughter, who lives abroad and studied museum management, immediately rallied around her to help her on the path ahead.

Surgery was the next step, and Patwardhan found herself in a difficult situation because of her upcoming trip. When the doctor assured her that she would be able to travel two weeks after the surgery, Patwardhan half-jokingly asked if it could be done that very day. The doctor called the surgeon and confirmed that it could be done.

“I zipped home to make lunch, packed a small bag and was at Joshi Hospital by evening. But of course I realised later there was no way I could travel in two weeks and am still fighting for the tickets’ refund,” Patwardhan says.

Dupattas turn into turbans at hospital

Radiation became the next challenge for Patwardhan. After her second round of treatment, when her hair began to fall out, she turned her dupattas into trendy turbans. This creative transformation made her the talk of the hospital as she confidently walked down the corridors wearing her colourful headgear. Soon, she started teaching other patients how to tie and wear turbans as well. As her treatment continued, the cancer began to recede. “Now it has been nine months since I have been declared free of the dreaded disease,” says Patwardhan, who does not like to be called a cancer survivor but says that the ailment was a great teacher.

Her 48-year-old son is a sculptor in Pune, and her 52-year-old daughter lives abroad and studied museum management. (Express Photo/Pavan Khengre)

“It taught me so much about myself. While cooking has been my passion, and my table is always laden with goodies I make for my friends, I now started to read a lot about healthy diets. I gave up sugar entirely but still butter my toast heavily. I learnt to balance my intake; once I lost my appetite totally and did not eat anything for 12 days, simply living on water. The detox was great. I lost weight and felt so good. But when I got chikungunya, I was on steroids and was ravenous all the time. So the balance is important,” she says.

Another thing Patwardhan says cancer taught her is about her desires. “One day, my doctor told me to make my bucket list. I laughed and asked, ‘why? Do you think I am dying?’. He replied that some time ago, he decided to sit on the banks of a river in Haridwar, leaving his phone behind and only hearing the sounds of the river and the birds. It was an experience he wanted to repeat often. That day. I wrote down my first bucket list item and now they have gone up to 15. It has given my life a new purpose,” she says with a smile.

Patwardhan has had a remarkable career as an art director, winning accolades for her work in Limited Manuski (1995), Anantyatra (1985), and 22 June 1897 (1979). In 1984, she, along with her husband Nachiket, received the National Award for the bold Rekha-starrer Utsav. Also, she and Nachiket are the original designers of the anime version of the Ramayana, the Indo-Japanese production that was re-released on January 26.