Hina Khan is filled with gratitude and is beaming with excitement for Eid this year. And rightly so, because this Eid holds special significance for Hina, who has emerged stronger and resilient after a tumultuous year of battling cancer. Dressed in a stunning yellow sharara for an exclusive photoshoot with Bombay Times, she radiates happiness and positivity. Excerpts from a conversation.

Growing up in Kashmir, Hina’s Eid celebrations were always filled with anticipation. “As a child, I would eagerly wait for Eid, wondering when the chand would be sighted,” she reminisces and adds, “There was always an air of excitement and anticipation – would Eid be tomorrow or day after?

Hina says, “We would have a bag ready with our dress and footwear. For me, Eid was a lot about dressing up and Eidi. I was never as excited about the food.” She further says that as an actress, dressing up now has a different meaning, because she has to do it so often. “You dress up so much as an actor that on Eid, if you’re at home, you just want to chill in your pyjamas or probably dress up casually.”

Eid is a time for reflection and gratitude, and for Hina, the past 10 months have been extremely tough, but also a testament to her courage and determination as she battled cancer and underwent chemotherapy. “I am so grateful this Eid. I did not keep all the rozas. When Ramzan started, I kept six rozas at a stretch and I could even exercise. My doctors have been so kind and accommodative. They told me I can have my medicines, which I am supposed to have at regular intervals during the day, at sehri and iftar. They said, ‘Hina, listen to your body. If you can manage it, then it is fine’. So, I have a lot of gratitude for the way my body managed it all.”

Hina’s resilience is a beacon of inspiration for others, who might be navigating similar challenges in life. But even through this ordeal, she didn’t let her spirit take a beating. She admits, “I will not say it was not tough. I’ve had bad days. I’ve had terrible days. But there were good days, too. The last 10 months have gone by in a flash. I have made some amazing memories. I travelled with my family, and we had so many adventures and family gatherings. It’s our choice what we want to prioritise and what memories we want to feed into our life. I choose to make good memories.”

On a parting note, ask Hina what she wants as Eidi this year and she says, “I want to be cancer-free for life. What else would I wish for? I keep telling myself that I am healing and that I will be cancer-free for life. This is what any cancer patient who has gone through so much would wish for. Nothing else.”

Hina gets into a nostalgic mood as she tells us how she yearned to be in Kashmir this Eid, but couldn’t do that because of work commitments.

She shares, “When Ramzan started, I told my mom that we’d go to Kashmir to celebrate Eid with my extended family. I was very excited about it, but things didn’t work out. I have some wonderful memories from my childhood days there. My nani would take me to several dargahs where I used to go barefoot in the mornings.”

She adds, “This Eid is going to be simple. It will be Ro’s (partner Rocky Jaiswal) family, my family and probably a couple of friends celebrating together.”