Author: Swathi
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Writing Trauma, Writing Survival
Why write about trauma and suffering? Something horrible happened in your life and it shook you. You don’t want to relive it and you certainly don’t want to ponder on its meaning. This is a natural response of evasion. But trauma specialists talk about the healing aspects of writing. First, Writing helps in processing an […]
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Panic Attacks: What are they and what we can do about them?
A couple of months ago I woke up in the middle of the night unable to breathe. My heart was beating so fast, I could hear it in my ears. I felt a huge wave of heat pass through my body like I was burning myself from the inside out. I thought I was going […]
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When the stigma is from within: A story of my feminist values and a narcissistic mother
I’ve seen my mother face domestic violence since I was a child. Growing up in an environment where individual liberty and self expression had no space for existence, I soon learnt to survive by making myself invisible. But in my most private thoughts, I always felt the need to fight for women’s rights. Maybe it […]
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What makes You: Values or Behaviour?
I have a friend who is a feminist. She stands for the ideals of equality. She believes in a just society where all genders can exist in harmony with no violence or aggressions. I became close to her because of this camaraderie I felt for a fellow feminist. How wonderful it is, I thought, to […]
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What I learnt from my Imposter Syndrome.
Yesterday, a professor from my department retired. He is an eminent scholar in the field of cultural studies. There was a zoom meeting to celebrate his career over the years. Several experienced professors, intellectuals, ex-PhD students and academicians attended the meeting. I wasn’t prepared for the sense of doom that rushed through my body at […]