putting the end in friend

i think i am lonely. staggeringly so. it might be because of my depression that i’m being distant and pushing everyone away. or perhaps because i’m embarrassed. all my friends are so successful and accomplished. meanwhile i’m just meandering through life – unsure and unaware.

when i was in college, i had many, many friends. sometimes my commitments to different friend groups would clash and i would end up hanging out with three different social circles in one evening. i think i peaked in college.

Muscat Times

When my parents first told me they were moving to Muscat, I was not happy. I had just moved to Delhi for college and I was struggling to adjust to my new reality. I missed my friends back in Dubai, I missed the familiarity and comfort that you feel when you’ve lived somewhere for decades. I was looking forward to going back home for vacations, meeting my friends from school and visiting our cherished jaunts. Of course, my protests and disapproval didn’t matter because a month later, I was in my parents’ new house in Muscat.

Ties between family and food

My grandmother, my father’s mother, was a formidable woman. At a time, when women were expected to stay within the confines of their homes, my Bee (that’s what I used to call her) was a working woman. She seamlessly managed being the principal of a school while also raising three successful and ambitious children. She was a feminist before the term even existed. By the time I was born though, my Bee had long retired. But she was still a force to reckon with; she was kind and empathetic, she commanded respect and radiated warmth, she was widely admired and deeply loved by everyone who knew her.

Why performative empathy is unhelpful

Your ‘be kind’ and ‘my DMs are open’ messaging makes me angry.

Another celebrity died by suicide, because he was battling depression. Suddenly everyone on social media is waxing ”be kind” messages, sharing suicide prevention hotlines and sharing their hot-takes on mental health. Let’s talk about why this performative empathy is actually useless and really doesn’t help people that are struggling with their mental health.

A Suitable Boy

The pandemic has full-on taken over our realities, the economy is nose-diving straight to hell and I recently graduated from college, right into this mess, during these unprecedented and ominous times. Man, do I miss ‘precedented’ times. Being a #Graduate2020 is all fun and games when Facebook and Google are scrambling to monetize your misery and throw extravagant, celebrity-ridden virtual graduation ceremonies. But it also sucks because WHERE ARE THE JOBS!? It’s not like companies are lining up to hire me.