MENTAL HEALTH NARRATIVES FROM THE MARGINS

At the launch of The Keshav Desiraju Lived Experience Repository, stories were shared, discussions were held, and a prime topic was under the spotlight

- ANUSREE PV

WHILE discussing mental health narratives, it is of paramount importance not to bury the factors from which they stem.

There is a need for these stories tethered to margins to be told, preserved, retold, and brought to the forefront. Systemic oppression, casteand class-based injustices, childhood trauma, poverty, unemployment, inaccessibility to mental health care these socioeconomic factors can shroud one's life. But we don't hear such stories often, despite a rise in mental health discussions.

On Saturday, at Savera Hotel, one such initiative, dedicated to centering and preserving stories of the psyche from marginal socioeconomic locations, called The Keshav Desiraju Lived Experience Repository, was launched. This project is created in memory of Keshav Desiraju, former Union Health Secretary, architect of India's Mental Health Policy. Vandana Gopikumar, co-founder of The Banyan, explained the importance of the initiative. "It aims to centre diverse experiences drawn from a broad landscape from a person who left home in search of her sister, who suffered a psychotic break, to a child carer, who saved her depressed mother's life because she plainly expressed fear and the desire to live. There is no one way of understanding and learning from lived experience wisdom."

At the event, a discussion, 'In Conversation: Stories Art, and Care', with filmmaker Mani Ratnam; production designer and artist Aradhana Seth; business head, Westland Books, Gautam Padmanabhan; lived-experienced experts, Srividya, and Kavipriya, centred on how to tell stories most truly and why these stories matter.