NMIMS hosts an inspirational Book Talk on “BLAZE A SON’S TRIAL BY FIRE: A TRUE STORY”

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Mumbai, 2 February 2022: SKVM’s NMIMS organized its 12th Book Talk on January 27, 2022 on “BLAZE A SON’S TRIAL BY FIRE: A TRUE STORY” with Mrs. Nidhi Poddar, Author and Home Maker and Mr. Sushil Poddar, Co-author and Commissioner of Income Tax, Mumbai.

A graduate in Economics and a courageous home-maker turned author, Nidhi Poddar in this book, has penned down her son Divyansh’s inspiring journey of battling with cancer and her life as his parent and care giver. Mr Sushil Poddar the co-author, is a senior government officer, serving his department for the past 27 years.

27th January was also Divyansh’s 25th birthday and the speakers celebrated the embodiment of courage and self-determination that he was, and drew inspiration from his journey. They highlighted the instances, which illustrated how a path of opportunities can be carved out in the middle of adversities.

The talk, moderated by Dr. Sunayana Sarkar, Assistant Professor, MPSTME, Civil Engineering Department, NMIMS and Ms. Deepakshi Paliwal, 4th year BTech Civil Engineering, MPSTME, NMIMS, deep dived into Divyansh’s success story and his ability to embrace all his purposes, whether as a son, a student, a friend or as a creative person, with an acute sense of maturity, even at a very tender age.

During the course of the talk, Mr Sushil Poddar, Co-author, highlighted that there is a considerable stereotyping against cancer in our society. Once a person is infected, the society looks at them with piercing eyes and it created a new bridge of challenges for the fighter. With this book they have tried to break this stereotype and spread the message that a cancer patient can also have a fulfilling life and that the battle gives them a reason to evolve from within.

Further on, Mr Sushil talked about the idea behind translating his son’s journey into a book. Mr and Mrs Poddar are firm advocates of their role in this society and their social responsibility towards it. They decided to write the book because they felt that narrating their son’s exemplary journey through this book, would ultimately be Divyansh’s contribution towards the society.

During the interactive Q&A session, Mrs Nidhi elaborated that how today, while working towards our goals, we admire the most successful and celebrated people in the world; however we sometimes forget to look around and harness motivation from the people around us. Seizing her son’s spirit for life, she stated that winning is not the ultimate goal. She mentioned that the true meaning of success is the ability to carve a path for ourselves and walk upon it with zest and courage.

She believes that he redefined success for everyone. Given the successful launch of the book and while remembering Divyansh through her work, it has shown her how her son is not only reaching out to people still, but is also taking his parents along with him through anecdotes which command immense respect and determination.

About the Book:

A journey of strength, courage and discovery.

Can a disease, more importantly, cancer, be a potent tool of self-evolution for both, the person who suffers from it, and his/her caregivers, especially parents? The value of good health is realized when it no more remains with us. The journey to salvage the lost friend can still offer myriad opportunities of redemption and self-discovery. It is up to us how we decide to tread this formidable path leading to self-actualization.

Time has made us realize that it is not fair to stereotype a person suffering from cancer from the point of view of cure or recovery. Many a time, such stereotyping comes from our own society, and sometimes, ironically, from the medical fraternity, for its inability to go beyond a point, after which you feel that you are condemned and vegetative. All these negativities passively entrap the patients and their parents in the viciousness of the disease where they die many times before the actual death. This is the worst form of cancer which has plagued our mindset.

In the case of Divyansh Atman, the authors’ son, it was not so. Divyansh was the embodiment of courage and self-determination in the face of adversities. His life journey shows us how the path of opportunities can still be paved in the middle of adversities. He lived a big and a meaningful life that made a huge impact on the lives of people around him.

Noteworthy in this book, is his collection of poems, written at various stages of his battle with Cancer. As a blogger and poet, he has explored myriad topics, apart from his obvious predicament and written deeply about his opinions, life’s questions that he has faced in his life and experiences that the adversities threw him at unexpected twists and turns of his journey. Excerpts from his poems and his blog posts show his extreme maturity, resilience of spirit and ability to draw analogy between the most unrelated things.

The book speaks of self-discovery and evolution, both for the sufferer and his caregivers.

ABOUT NMIMS

Established in 1981, NMIMS is today recognized as a globally reputed university with strong industry linkages. It offers multiple disciplines across 8 campuses that consist of 17 specialized schools, more than 17000 full time students, and about 750 full-time faculty members, 10 faculty members with Fulbright Scholarship and Humboldt International Scholarship for post-doctoral researchers. The Shri Vile Parle Kelavani Mandal (SVKM) led the foundation stone of this esteemed university, with the aim to cater to the rising demand of management institutes in the country. It is known for its consistent academic quality and research-focused approach towards holistic education. SVKM’s NMIMS has been granted Category-I Deemed University status by Graded Autonomy Regulation 2018 by MHRD/UGC and NMIMS Mumbai Campus is NAAC accredited with a CGPA of 3.59.