21 Jun– "As if I was tasting life for the first time, the magical side of it," actor Irrfan Khan recently posted on his Twitter, along with it he attached the link to an open letter detailing his ongoing battle with a rare form of cancer. "It's been quite some time now since I have been diagnosed with a high-grade neuroendocrine cancer," Irrfan stated in the letter that was first published in Times of India. "This new name in my vocabulary, I got to know, was rare, and due to fewer study cases, and less information comparatively, the unpredictability of the treatment was more. I was part of a trial-and-error game." He likened his journey to travelling on a speedy train but is suddenly asked to disembark, with the train conductor saying that his destination is "about to come" even as the actor insists that it isn't. "The suddenness made me realise how you are just a cork floating in the ocean with UNPREDICTABLE currents! And you are desperately trying to control it."
However, the actor has since reconciled with the fact, with uncertainty being the only certainty, stating that "the cork doesn't need to control the current. That you are being gently rocked in the cradle of nature."
The actor has been receiving treatment at a hospital, which he didn't name in his letter but described as being located across Lord's Cricket Ground in London. Irrfan first revealed that he is suffering from a 'rare disease' on 5 March. On 16 March, he posted again on his Twitter, this time disclosing the name of the disease: NeuroEndocrine Tumour (NET). That was the last the actor mentioned it on social media before sharing his open letter on 18 June. The 52-year-old multi-award winning actor begun his film career in 1988 and have starred not only in Indian films but also Hollywood blockbusters such as "The Amazing Spider-Man", "Life of Pi", "Jurassic World" and "Inferno". This year, he was seen in Hindi drama film "Blackmail" and will be seen soon in American film "Puzzle" and Hindi comedy drama "Karwan". His other upcoming projects, including the newly-announced series "The Ministry", are now on hold.