Processing grief is not easy, especially in a pandemic. Almost all of us have either lost a loved one or know someone who has lost their loved one in the past few months. The sheer helplessness that surrounds all of us right now is not “normal”. Morning rituals now look like waking up, checking your phone in the bed with a squinted eye and baited breath that hopefully, there wouldn’t be any tragic news to read today at least. Unfortunately, most often it is the opposite. You wake up, you come across a minimum of one post notifying you of passing away of someone you’ve known, met or heard about ..read more

This article was originally published on the author’s blog here. You can read the first part here. TW: Self-harm, Suicide, Suicidal ideation On the bright side, it has become increasingly easier and less painful to admit when I feel suicidal. Part of it can be owed to the realization that the idea on its own need not be as dangerous as it sounds. For the lack of a better phrase, this feeling isn’t always black and white – wanting to live or die. I could feel like dying on the worst days, and on most other days it’s just that the desire to live doesn’t really look exciting or colourful or even ..read more

TW: Self-harm, Suicide, Suicidal ideation When you are in the middle of a desert, only the distant horizons or huge dunes meet your eyes. You are forced to let the winds decide in which direction you are to walk, with all the sand that has gone in your eyes, making your vision increasingly blurry. You carry on with the drudgery, walking on bare feet along the hot sands. Most of the days are uneventful, and you don’t find yourself moving anywhere despite all the walking. But there are sudden sandstorms, savage and overwhelming. You gag because of the sand that has got in your mouth, and in the ..read more

I was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder close to 3 years ago but possibly lived with the illness for many years prior to that. Bipolar Disorder causes severe high and low moods. In the depressive state, you may feel sad, hopeless, and at times even suicidal. In the manic state, you may feel euphoric, invincible, and filled with energy. My primary objective in telling my story is to support anyone experiencing similar symptoms. I urge everyone to understand that mental illness should be treated like any physical illness and one should seek help without feeling ashamed. For many years prior t ..read more

I remember coming back home from school and switching on the small 14 inch TV that we had in our room and getting glued to watch some random American disney shows dubbed in Hindi. Most of them were based on the high school experiences of teenagers and I, being one, used to love watching those pretty white people all dressed up in casual clothing and not a strict uniform, running here and there in their brightly painted school corridors and rummaging through their lockers. I used to be fascinated by not just the aesthetics of the schools that were shown on these shows, but also some of the min ..read more