Never stop fighting - cancer stricken Lisa Ray’s motto

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NEW DELHI - Actress Lisa Ray, who was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a rare cancer of the plasma cells last year, isn’t letting the disease affect her - she is determined to fight it and has sought spiritual solace near Ganga in Rishikesh.

Im back from Rishikesh (in Uttarakhand). The holy city of Hindus. Located in the foothills of the majestic Himalayas. Ganga darshan. Spiritual theatre, wrote the actress on her blog on her recent Rishikesh visit.

The tag line on her blog says: “Never Stop Fighting”.

Passed many shaven pilgrims. I have a new vision of myself now. In this city of mystics, mendicants and seekers, my tonsured head blends in, added 37-year-old, who came to India Feb 15 soon after stem cell transplant for which she had to shave off her head.

My dad and I sat by the side of the Ganges and dipped our fingers in the sacred river. He placed his hand on the crown of my head, leaving droplets in my pilgrim fuzz. We watched the faithful immerse themselves. Flashes of flesh, fabric flung away, a human ache meets the waters. The waters cleanse it all away, she added.

Lisa was born to a Bengali father and a Polish mother. She joined showbiz as a model and later ventured into films with Tamil movie “Nethaji”. After that she was seen in Vikram Bhatt’s “Kasoor” in 2001, but stayed away from mainstream Hindi films as she could not speak the language fluently.

In 2002, internationally renowned filmmaker Deepa Mehta cast her opposite Rahul Khanna in the crossover film “Bollywood Hollywood”. The Canada-based director later repeated Lisa in her Oscar-nominated period drama “Water” (2005), in which she impressed critics with her performance as a young widow.

The actress was last seen in “Cooking with Stella”. The Indian Film Festival of Las Angeles has invited it for a gala presentation during the event starting April 20.

Lisa says India is her most complex lover.

“And Ive had complicated relationships. Believe me. With this infuriatingly endearing exchange behind me, I touch the soil of the most infuriatingly endearing land I have ever known,” wrote the actress who landed here with couple of wigs to cover her shaven head occassionally.

“I’ve packed wigs for my Rado store appearances in Bangalore and Chennai. Not to pretend. Not for approval’s sake. But because it occurs to me that my scalp may be shiny. Don’t want to blind any photographers during our store promotions,” she wrote on her March 11 post.