Palliative care should be at the heart of all medicine: Jerry Pinto; Interview by Sukant Deepak
Sahitya Akademi Award-winning writer Jerry Pinto smiles when asked what drew him to a subject many people instinctively avoid—grief, illness and dying. “It’s strange, isn’t it?” he says.
“Palliative care is about helping people feel better. Shouldn’t that be at the heart of all medicine?”
For Pinto, whose writing has consistently explored lives on the margins with tenderness and empathy, the answer lies in what he sees as medicine’s growing emphasis on cure over care. The palliative care movement, he says, reflects a need for a more humane and compassionate approach to illness.
The recipient of the Yale University Windham-Campbell Prize for Fiction will be in Chandigarh on June 7 at the Government Museum and Art Gallery Auditorium (6.15 pm) at the invitation of Elsewhere Foundation. He will discuss his latest book, A Good Life: The Power of Palliative Care, along with his wider body of work, with Ravi Singh, publisher of Speaking Tiger Books.
Pinto admits that he once shared a common misunderstanding about palliative care.
“I can’t blame people for thinking it’s only for those at the end of life,” he says. “I
thought so myself.” Working on the book changed that perception. He came to understand palliative care
as support for anyone living with a life-limiting condition, not merely those nearing
death.
“Think of a child diagnosed with diabetes, or parents learning that their baby has Down syndrome,” he says. “It’s about helping people navigate difficult realities with comfort, dignity and guidance.”
That concern for dignity perhaps explains why Pinto is repeatedly drawn to stories beyond the spotlight of mainstream literature. Every life, he believes, deserves attention.
“I tell my journalism students at Sophia Polytechnic, ‘It’s not about who, it’s about how,’” he says. “Every story contains a hidden gem. But it belongs to the person who lived it, and you need their trust if you’re going to tell it honestly.”
Whether writing fiction, poetry, memoir or journalism, Pinto sees all forms as part of the same effort: understanding people. Translation, in particular, holds a special place for him.
“Translation allows us to enter other lives and experiences,” he says. “Without it, we remain isolated..”
While he is encouraged by the growing visibility of translated literature and subtitled films, Pinto believes much remains to be done. “We have come some distance,” he says, “but we still have a long way to go, especially when it comes to recognising the work of translators.”
June 6, 2026
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Sukant Deepak, Culture writer Co-founder: Elsewhere Foundation
sukant.deepak@gmail.com
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