From Deepa's Desk

  Somedays you need that cup of extra-strong coffee. Because you realize that no matter how many routes of escape you keep in hand, it really catches up with you that life is hard. You plan and organize, yet things will go out of hand. You read inspiring books and listen to motivational podcasts, yet one small, negligible event can trigger the ever-simmering gloom in your mind. You listen to spiritual discourses every day that keep reminding you to rise above the petty matters of life and think from a bigger context. Yet one criticizing remark is enough to remind you of everything that is going wrong with your life. You meet and deal with a lot of people and assume that you know how to handle difficult ones, and yet when the time comes to stand up against toxic people, you cannot, because a part of your mind that has always been subdued by such people tells you (in their voice) that it is your fault like always. You plan a to-do list and find that there will always be a lot

  I am ashamed to say that I have not been following up with the Kolkata rape case. The reason is quite petty and selfish – I am too weak-hearted to read or hear any details about the victim. I have been reading many posts on the social media, condemning the dastardly crime and asking for justice. Yet I kept quiet, not wanting to get involved. But only because Nirbhaya has already broken me. So did Priyanka (from Hyderabad in 2019). I do not have stomach to read or hear about any more crimes. Today, a friend sent a YouTube video wherein a doctor living near the hospital recounted the horrors that the hospital is facing. I kept listening until she came to the point where she started describing the victim’s condition. My finger automatically slid across the video to many minutes further. Because I can’t. I just can’t. And to think that someone actually went through all of that. Acts like this shake up our very belief in humanity. We should not even compare ourselves to animals, for