Namaskar, I am Shikhashree, a mental health practitioner based in Guwahati, Assam.

When I see the question ‘who are you, introduce yourself’, I take a pause and start thinking because I don’t have definite answer to this and most of the time, I experience mood fluctuations, and it depends on my mood when I see the question. My mood is like current weather of Guwahati which fluctuate a lot. However, most of the time I feel upset and frustrated because what’s going on around me it’s not uplifting my mood. Climate change, gender inequality, class system, caste system, health system, education system and the system, everyone is in a tough competition to make my mood low (again I have difficulty explaining what this low mood look like). Since when I have started noticing about me identify who am I, most of the time I am like This.

But, to be very honest sometimes I feel good as a mental health practitioner (glad that now I am a part of the group with whom my ideas, values are aligning). I am helping people who needs me. I sometimes feel happy because when I try to reflect I can see that I have come a long way, very long way, a girl who has born and brought up in a small village (now people have started calling it city because it’s a part of Guwahati city) name Sawkuchi, the place even people of Guwahati are not aware about, or sometimes people give a different look ( that I never felt good) when I talk about my place, because we didn’t follow a lifestyle that was following by other Guwahtians. And whose father still feel bad or regretting as he has no son, he has 4 daughters, whose father still blames his wife because she could not give birth to a son (who will continue his legacy and heir). Despite having this I am doing what I want to do (therefore I feel privilege).

Okay, whatever, I am a woman whose mood fluctuate a lot but helping people is a constant thing and engaging myself in art and craft is something that I love doing still childhood no matter what. Something that I feel most important for me is sleep but I have difficulty sleeping at night, I don’t sleep like Kumbhkaran but I can skip almost everything for sleep.