The gathering in 2018 with Sanket Gala (bottom row, centre) and Yashna Vishwanathan (bottom row, first from right)

“We met for five days in June and conducted activities, had conversations around various aspects of mental health over the five days. For instance, one of the things we asked the young people what mental health looks like to them or meant to them. For some it meant feeling safe or validated from someone or being able to express [themselves] in ways they wanted. Post the gathering, we then transcribed the sessions, picked out verbatim and themes, and checked with them for whether we were under/over-interpreting. Ananya would sit throughout the sessions, observe the sessions and ask participants many little questions to know them and [understand] how they want to be illustrated. All of us sat together to look at how we want to conceptualise this book and what’s it that we want to make visible through it,” Vishwanathan says, pointing out that it was important to figure out how this can supplement existing literature on mental health, while Gala advocates for more talk in the classroom. “We have subjects like personality development but mental health isn’t looked at in a broader sense, and certainly not at the level of primary education. It isn’t given as much importance as physical health.”

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In January 2020, Ummeed will also organise a conference for narrative practitioners called Weaving our Voices. Talking about the team’s biggest learnings, Vishwanathan says, “It was to be really mindful of our influence over the personal accounts and how checking, re-checking and reiterating our intentions helped us with that. Our intent was also to make it a collective document that was representative of many different voices rather than amplifying one voice over another because of our own biases or privileges. Through this process, narrative ideas and practices guided us as a team to keep holding on to the belief that people are experts to their lives.”

At: Ummeed Child Development Center, 1-B,1/62, Mantri Pride Building, NM Joshi Marg, Lower Parel (to pick up a copy of Jugaad).
Log on to: @mentalhealthjugaad on Instagram (to order a copy)

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