Sharing a personal story Journalist Faye D’Souza said, “This book is really healing, and I’ve experienced the need for palliative care in my own family.” She added, “When you’re caring for someone you love, you realize how much silence there is in our hospitals – not the quiet kind, but the kind that comes from things we don’t know how to say. Communication is the beginning and the end of palliative care. As Indians, we avoid discussing death, but in this room, we are laughing and clapping, and that is the joy of Jerry Pinto.”
The author of The Good Life, Jerry Pinto, shared his thoughts, “We think palliative care is about death, but it’s really about love – about saying ‘You matter till the very last breath.’” Adding that we must focus on the person, not just the ailment, he said, “When we remember the person and not just the organs, healing becomes possible – even when cure is not.”
“Treat people the way you want to be treated, if you’d like to be told, you need to tell as well,” he concluded.
Summary
The second day of Literature Live! The Mumbai LitFest saw prominent author, poet and translator Jerry Pinto launch his latest book, A Good Life: The Power of Palliative Care. One of the most emotionally resonant sessions at the Festival, it opened with moving readings by actors Soha Ali Khan and Jim Sarbh, who set the tone for an evening that explored life, death, empathy, and the quiet dignity of caregiving.
The conversation that followed saw Faye D’Souza in dialogue with Jerry Pinto, delving into the genesis of the book, its human core, and its reflections on the healthcare system. Faye shared a deeply personal story of loss, connecting her own experience of caregiving with the themes of the book — the silence, the communication gaps, and the overwhelming emotional terrain of hospitals and families in crisis.
Jerry Pinto mentioned how the book was born out of an encounter with profound compassion. He recounted his first visit to the palliative care unit at Wadia Hospital for Children – an experience that re-shaped his understanding of care, dignity, and healing. The author spoke of the everyday heroes he met across India – doctors, nurses, caregivers, and families – who practice empathy in its trues tform.
From a mother in Kerala caring for four sons with a neurological disease to doctors who restore comfort with the simplest acts, Pinto illustrated how palliative care is, at its heart, “the art of being human.”
The session also touched upon gendered aspects of caregiving, with Pinto and the audience acknowledging the invisible emotional labour that women disproportionately bear within families.
Tender, reflective and deeply moving, the session invited the audience to think about what it really means to live and to leave with grace. Balancing warmth and wisdom, Jerry Pinto infused even the heaviest themes with wit and humour, reminding the audience that talking about death is, in fact, a way of celebrating life.
