I couldn’t speak in front of an audience, no matter how prepared I was.
I still remember being a scared 10-year-old girl in front of an audience. I was told to perform a small poem for annual day, and I was petrified. I had practised the whole week for the performance and was well-prepared. But when the time came, I looked at everyone around me, and simply froze. I […]
I used to think that my co-worker hated me.
I had started working for an IT firm 2 years ago. It was my first job and I was overjoyed about getting the opportunity to work in the area of my interest. We were a team of seven under one supervisor, whom we had to report every day. It was a warm and healthy environment. […]
My child would get excessively tensed on the day of his exam.
My son was a bright child. He was good in studies, and performed well at school. But he was overly afraid of taking exams. We first noticed that something was wrong when he was supposed to write his half yearly exams in grade 6. That was the first time he was giving exams since […]
I had a miscarriage six months back, but I couldn’t stop thinking about the baby I lost.
I am a woman in my late thirties and have recently gone through a very traumatic incident. I was pregnant last year, and three months into the pregnancy, I had a miscarriage. I work at a pharmaceutical company and have a very caring partner. Everything was going as well as it could, and then […]
I might be gay, but I was too scared to talk about it.
Growing up as a boy, I was always aware that I was different. In school, people usually form friendships by making connections and finding mutual interests with one another. However, when I was in school, I had difficulty identifying with a certain friend circle; thus, I spent most of my school life without friends. […]
I wasn’t confident about my body.
I remember attending a workshop on body positivity where everyone was asked to write the part of their bodies they liked. And I remember not being able to think of any such area of my body that I liked. My face had a little too much acne, my thighs had a bit too much fat, […]
I didn’t think I would get through the Coronavirus pandemic.
Ever since the ‘Janta curfew’ was announced, reading newspapers and watching television had started becoming stressful for me. After a point, the increase in the number of deaths in India made me wonder if I was going to be the next one to die or if someone from my family would get infected with the […]
I hated my younger brother.
I have a brother, who is four years younger than me. I remember how happy my family was the time he was born. My parents had dropped me at my grandparents’ house, where I kept asking why I was not there when my sibling was born. They had simply said “I wouldn’t understand”. Honestly, I […]
I was losing motivation in things I used to once love.
I remember those days when I used to paint ardently. It was therapeutic for me. There wouldn’t be a single day when I wouldn’t paint. I was so sure that it was meant for me. Pastels and paint bottles lying around my room all day made me happy and content even though it made my […]
I didn’t understand when people said “take care of your mental health”.
One week in winter, I found myself sick in bed. My mother prepared warm bowls of soup, and offered to run to the store if I needed anything. Friends and family told me to “take it easy” and “rest up”. All week long, I did everything in my power to keep my fever down. Everyone […]