‘Treat these as tribute, not literature’

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, January 14

City-based social activist Jagjit Sood released three books titled “Jashn-e-Zindagi”, a coffee table book, in addition to “Love Returns” as well as “Aj Kuchh Meri Suno,” in memory of his wife.

Sood (71) said he lost his wife Kamal due to cancer six years ago and it shattered him emotionally. But his friends motivated him to remember 40 years he spent with his wife and celebrate those good years.

Never having written anything before, he wrote three books, capturing the time since she came into his life. “These books should not be looked from the point of view of a literary critic, but as a tribute of a husband to his beloved wife,” he said.

Since her demise at the age of 61, he has been working towards making people aware about cancer. He founded an NGO “Can Fight Cancer” through which they have been holding awareness campaigns at several places, including schools and colleges.

“We have reached out to over fifty thousand people through lectures, seminars and walkathons, among others, about danger and prevention of cancer,” he said.

Sood said they would be coming up with a “Palliative Care Unit” for terminally ill cancer patients to take care of them.

He said though he was not a versatile person earlier, but passing of his wife, led to not only writing poetry dedicated to his wife, but he even went onto to do a play at the Guru Nanak Bhawan and Tagore Theatre, Chandigarh.

“This is what a good soul can do. She inspired to live selflessly and continues to do so,” he said.