Rocks and Flowers

Have you ever been depressed? Like, really, really depressed? Where you are aware that you have neared or perhaps already reached rock bottom? If yes, then maybe this is an article you will be able to relate to. If not, I hope you have an idea of how this works after you read my perception on this issue. Let us start by enumerating the two common myths about depression that I have read or even heard of. Either you can get ‘depressed’ for anything or telling a depressed person to be happy actually ‘helps’ that person. No offence being made, but I’ve heard many people use this word casually and I kind of disagree with this increasing habit. “I lost my favourite pen, I am depressed.” “My shirt got stained, I am depressed.” Saying this so carelessly brings no justice to those who are really suffering from it. Using this word so often makes it lose its seriousness and impact. We have come to believe that it is a joke, just a temporary meaningless state that we’ll eventually ...

There was this one time I had gone to a supermarket and a sudden fight broke out between two men. Having gone to an all-girls school and having not been that exposed to the greater, darker part of society, my initial response to this situation was to freeze and just observe. However, when one of them appeared with a knife and tried to stab the other, I panicked. I thought about jumping in and helping out, but realistically speaking, I am a midget compared to those people and would have probably ended up with a bloody wound. My next response was to search for a security guard or someone who could handle this situation in a more appropriate manner. When I scanned the crowd, I was very much surprised. While someone was trying not to be killed, observers, just like me, were transfixed by the scene. But unlike me, nearly nobody made a move to help in some way. Instead, they were glued in their spots. Some had their phones out and were filming the scene while others were chatting am...

I want to start this article by sharing with you a personal experience of mine. There was this time I had attended a conference and many representatives of different NGOs were present. There was this group of women, who were feminists, talking about the organisation they had just created which had the aim of helping women who had been abused physically and sexually. Out of curiosity, I asked them a single question: What about men who are abused too? Their answer shocked me. They said that they had men working for them but they did not offer help to men who were abused. Curious again, I enquired: Would they broaden their scope in the future and include male victims as well? I was welcomed with the same reluctant answer; they had men working for them but they had no intention of helping male victims now or later. I was very confused and outraged that day. How can we exclude a certain group of people from certain services on the grounds that they are physically differen...