October begins and brings along the festive season. All of us gear up for the month with enthusiasm and zeal. October is also the Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

All of us at IWB thought that there would be no better way to acknowledge Pinktober than to make it a part of Diwali Celebration! We initiated a campaign ‘Pink Feet’ and roped in Lakshmi herself as our companion. We visited three women’s houses who welcomed Lakshmi with a trail of Pink Feet as a promise of self-love.

Our Pink-Feet squad included a talented biographic painter Swati Souls, our Social Media Manager Anvita Singh, Photographer Pallav and me! Our visit aimed to discuss Breast Cancer – its causes, preventions, and self-examination routine and, of course, to paint Lakshmi’s Pink Feet as a sign of awareness.

And following the Diwali tradition, the hosts received a gift, a roll of Pink Feet wrapping paper that we asked them to use for gift packing and spread a word among their neighbors.

By the way, Swati Souls, who led our squad, is the only biographic painter in our country. She also does wall art, theme-based or subject paintings, and interior paintings.

We paid our first visit to Twinkle Singh who is a finance graduate. We entered a beautiful house named Bhola Bhawan. She welcomed us on the first floor wearing a bright pink tee twinning with the vibe of our Pink Feet Campaign! We all sat down making ourselves comfortable and introducing one another.

Anvita: How much are you aware of the Breast Cancer? Have you ever self-examined yourself?

Twinkle: Not much, actually. Only to the extent of what I had seen in few short videos.

She was surprised to know that it’s important to take self-exam at least once in a month.

We asked her where she would like to get Pink Feet painted and she showed us space down the stairs. Swati sat down folding her legs and armed herself with the brush.

Twinkle was curious about Swati’s different genre of painting and asked her about it.

Twinkle: What exactly is biographic painting?

Swati: In simple words, I paint a person’s life on canvas. To explain, every person has his past, present, and future. Every person possesses some dreams, likes, visions, etc. So, let’s say you want to get a Biographic Painting done of yourself. I will take your interview, ask you pre-listed questions about various things, study your likes, dislikes, favorite colors, favorite memories, your career, family life, future goals, and everything. Then, I’ll depict your life, its memories, and dreams for future on canvas.

While the chat was flowing, Swati was done with the cute bright pink feet on the floor.

We then took time to learn steps of self-examination. Anvita led the demonstration, and all of us followed.

Signing off, we handed to Twinkle a bunch of IWB Breast Cancer Awareness wrapping paper so that this Diwali she could gift women a reminder of self-care.

Our next stop was at Radhika Gupta’s. She is a teacher in a college. Her house had a beautiful garden, and when we entered, we couldn’t stop gushing about it.

Swati got busy with the threshold that in no time showed the path of Pink Feet leading to Breast Cancer Awareness.

Radhika: How did you guys come up with this idea? I think it’s brilliant!

Anvita: Breast Cancer is increasing rapidly in India, and our country stands 3^rd in the rank! It’s an alarming statistic, and hence we thought together we can do something about it.

Radhika: I had no idea about this being so severe.

Joins in her mother.

Pink-Feet Squad: Namaste Aunty!

Radhika’s mother: Namaste.

All of us settle down again with a big smile on our faces.

Priyasha: So Aunty, how aware are you of Breast Cancer? And have you self-examined yourself at home?

Radhika’s mother: Quite much, beta. I have learned the routine from few online videos.

Priyasha: That’s incredible, aunty!

As the conversation was speeding up, we started with our demonstration of the self-examination steps and this time we wanted it to be a little fun.

Did you notice that? We did a little dance-y thing!

As we took our leave, we handed over our wrapping paper rolls to them so that they pass on the knowledge of self-care to more young girls and women. 

It took a bit of bumpy ride, and we reached Sanya Singh’s house.  Sanya welcomed us in the sitting room with her mother.

Anvita: Sanya, your house is so beautiful.

Sanya: Thank you so much!

Anvita: All prepped up for Diwali?

Sanya: We’re Sikhs, so we don’t really have the custom Puja. For us, Diwali is all about food and lights.

Anvita: I think it’s for most of us. (laughs)

Sanya: Haha. We’re planning to bake a pizza this time! *yum yum*

Sanya once visited a doctor for a check-up as she was worried about rashes on her breast.

Sanya: I had some rashes, and I was scared, so I immediately visited the doctor. Luckily, it was just another skin sensitivity problem.

Priyasha: Actually, rashes are one of the symptoms of Breast Cancer. Rashes, redness, irregularity in nipples, lumps, and fluids from nipples (unless you’re breastfeeding) are alarming signs. Good that you visited the doctor immediately.

Sanya’s mother: Actually beta, we’ve seen a case at our home. My mother-in-law was diagnosed with Breast Cancer, and we’ve seen her gone through the pain of chemotherapy.

Priyasha: Self-examination hence becomes very important to figure out the condition at an early stage.

Sanya: Definitely.

By that time, Swati was done with another pair of pink feet, and we instructed Sanya to use Pink Feet wrapping paper for packing of her Diwali gifts to spread the word of self-care.

Before we left, they served us yummy sweets! *Happy Diwali to us!*

This Diwali, gift yourself a promise of self-care and self-love through these simple self-examination routine:

Step 1: Stand in front of a mirror and put your arms on your hips. Look for any oddity in the usual size, shape or color. It’s normal to have different sizes or shapes of breasts.  It’s alarming if you find dimpling, puckering or bulging of the skin, irregularity in nipples and redness, soreness, rash or swelling.

Step 2: Repeat Step 1 with your hands raised over your head.

Step 3: Gently squeeze each nipple. It’s alarming if there is a discharge of any sort of liquid unless you’re breastfeeding.

Step 4: Lie down, raise one arm over your head and use another hand to make circular movement from outside to inside. Repeat for the other breast, too.  Repeat the same step while standing and notice if you feel any lumps or irregularity.