Curious Cat and Other Stories

Whole of last week US elections kept everyone on tenterhooks. Everyone even India was watching it with baited breath. There were calls for self-care, as the suspense continued before the final results were called.  Curious Cat and Other stories is exploring the sidelines of this political drama by diving into the politics of self care. Yes, you read that right. So let’s jump right in. 

Understanding the radical history of self care by Sadie Trombetta

https://hellogiggles.com/lifestyle/health-fitness/understanding-radical-history-of-self-care/

Politics of self care and feminism

https://www.genderit.org/feminist-talk/politics-self-care-and-feminism

The billion dollar business

http://www.brainblogger.com/2014/05/23/the-self-help-industry-helps-itself-to-billions-of-dollars/

Report on the latest Time Use Survey

https://www.livemint.com/news/india/your-caste-and-class-determines-how-you-spend-time-11602657834829.html

http://mospi.nic.in/download-reports

This is the 4th and final episode in the series on Mental health. Curious Cat is exploring the intersection of caste and mental health. Caste is a difficult and emotional subject to unpack, which means it has a direct line to one’s mental health. What does the existing set up look like? What more do we need to do? Curious Cat and other stories is asking these very questions in this episode. Let’s jump right in. 

Trigger Warning: Talks about caste violence, rape and trauma

Show notes: 

Residential segregation in urbanising India

https://www.dropbox.com/s/nwa1cvkwoo59v0w/urbanPreprintBMR.pdf?dl=0

Fractal urbanism: City size and residential segregation in India

https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/3ycrb

Creating accessible mental health services to Bahujans

https://thebluedawn.org

Number of psychiatrists in India: Baby steps forward, but a long way to go

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6341936/

Assess the Relationship of Caste with Depression and Anxiety in Nepal 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3907946/

Explaining Caste discrimination in Bengaluru  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ynPVWWeQjo

All of October, Curious Cat and Other Stories is exploring various aspects of Mental Health. In today’s episode, we learn about the history and consequences of erasing queer identities and how we can start to remedy this. Curious Cat is diving into the world of Queer Affirmative Mental Health Practice; come along.

Trigger warning: Trauma, murder and suicide 

(Today's episode comes from a farmland far away from 4g network, so look out for buzzing cricket sounds, doggies and oh construction sounds, the charms of working from home) 

Are you a parent exhausted from playing the teacher, friend, and a punching bag for your bewildered child in this lockdown? Then this podcast is for you. Listen to Dr Maitri Goplalakrishna a drama therapist who shares her learnings on parenting during the pandemic. 

WORLD MENTAL HEALTH DAY SPECIAL!
In this episode of Curious Cat and Other Stories, I am giving you a quick summary of India’s mental health care policy and the issues we are facing. The theme for this year’s World Mental Health Day is “Investing in Mental health.” What will it mean to do so here in India? Listen to this quick explainer to understand more. Bonus: Poetry by Chandrama Deshmukh! Trigger warning: Suicide statistics. 

Today's episode I talk to Neha Singh, a Mumbai based Women's rights activist, children's author and theatre practitioner. She was named one of the 100 women of impact in the world, by BBC in 2016. She has won awards for both her writing and acting. Enjoy the conversation! 

Use of narcotics and its problems are at the forefront of the news cycle and hence our living rooms for the past few weeks. In this episode, the curious cat dives in to understand the history of intoxicants in India, the definition of addiction, how we as a society are dealing with this issue and the path to recovery. 

I talk to Vasanthi Hariprakash about navigating social media, building your social capital and why it is absolutely imperative to tell your story to the world. 

In this episode I explore how we have come to conflate self worth with net worth in our quest of being productive human beings. I delve into the economic, sociological and psychological perspectives of this productivity conundrum. I will also share with you how feminism views this whole idea. This is a 19 minute long podcast; at the end of which if you can tell me how many times I say the word productivity, there is a grand prize to win. Okay there isn't a prize but I am hoping it will get you till the end! 

Show notes: 

https://feminisminindia.com/2020/04/07/covid-19-feminist-killjoys-toxic-productivity-academy/

My first episode is a deep dive into the writerly life of Bangalore based author, the very prolific Andaleeb Wajid. I read her book More than just Biriyani a couple of years ago and simply fell in love with it. I have since then read a few other books of hers, she writes them faster than I can read. I am not kidding. I interviewed Andaleeb some time last year, in the pre-covid era when it was possible to meet over a hot chocolate and talk about things. Since then Andaleeb has written 4 more books! Taking the total number of books she has authored to 25. Let’s jump right in and ask her all the questions related to her craft, her inspirations and how she has eased into self publishing her books.