Himanjali Sankar’s Talking of Muskaan is a must read for parents

Aakanksha SinghLeave a comment

The recent events around the death of a young actor have brought to the limelight the stigma around mental health. It is important to start conversations around this to understand each other’s well-being. It is also imperative to acknowledge how society’s own rigid ideas around class, caste, gender and success can mar an individual’s mental state. To begin a conversation, we should also work toward creating equal spaces for everyone.

June is Pride Month and mental health issues around the LGBTQIA+ community must also be heard and voiced. Talking of Muskaan is an insightful YA novel that explores the issue of bullying and homosexuality in high school. In doing so, it also speaks about class, an entitlement that comes with class, the need for better support systems for students to understand and gauge their identities.

The novel begins with Muskaan’s best friends Aaliya, Rashika, Srinjini, Divya and Subhojoy being summoned by their school Principal. They are informed that Muskaan had attempted suicide and was hospitalized. The Principal tries to understand through them, about what could have been troubling Muskaan.

The story then reels back to five months earlier to flesh out the characters of Aaliya, Subhojoy and Prateek, along with unfolding the events that led to Muskaan’s suicide attempt. The rest of the novel is only seen through these three characters. The reader does not hear Muskaan’s viewpoint. The reader only hears about Muskaan and her thoughts through these characters. Aaliya and Muskaan are good friends. Prateek is a rich kid with a rich father who liked Muskaan but she rejected him. Prateek later gets put off by her quiet nature.

Subhojoy is on the opposite end of the class spectrum. He lives in a congested place and knows that studying hard is the only way to make his dreams come true. He wants to come out first in his studies but somehow Muskaan beats him to it by a few marks. They then become friends hoping to learn from each other.  This also helps them to know each other’s circumstances better: Muskaan not being attracted to the opposite gender or Subhojoy feeling out of place because of his class.

Muskaan is mocked at for being friends with Subhojoy simply because he does not come from a well to do family. She is ridiculed for having rejected Prateek, who is wealthy and considered cool in the school. Word slowly gets around about possible rumours about her sexuality.

As we know, teenagers and kids can be vicious to each other when they do not conform. Being in love only equals to heterosexuality is the only thing peddled as being normal, which instantly makes everyone label Muskaan a ‘weirdo’ for liking girls instead of boys.

School can be tough and a hell-hole for those who are misfits, who do not seem to follow the normal.

Talking of Muskaan is a sensitive story that showcases the pitfalls of majority thinking where only one kind of behaviour is deemed correct. The novel also portrays how school children themselves are directly and indirectly taught gender and sexuality norms whether it is through the depiction of the girls shaving their body hair and making a ritual out of that or Prateek’s very Bollywood like thinking that a girl’s ‘no’ can be turned into a ‘yes.’

Through the juxtaposition of Subhojoy and Prateek, Sankar has also shown ideas of privilege prevalent in India. Subhojoy believes in the middle-class dream of working hard to become successful, whereas Prateek uses his wealth as a means to success which he thinks is his birthright.

Though Talking of Muskaan is a YA novel, it is one to be read by both parents and teenagers. Parents can reflect on how their own prejudices and attitudes can creep into a child’s point of view. For example, Prateek’s father’s entitled views seep into Prateek in the novel. It is an excellent way for parents to learn to be sensitive to the workings of a child’s mind. Lastly, the novel paves the way for sensitizing adults and children towards issues of homosexuality and its decriminalization in India. It is only when we engage in conversations, can we hope to create equal spaces where people are not burdened by the thought of being ostracized for who they like and are not mocked or bullied so much so that they contemplate or even attempt suicide.

Buy the book.

Here is a list of other books you can read this Pride Month

Here is another YA book recommendation for you.

I’m OK, You’re OK – Exploring Mental Landscapes

TheSeer Team

The biggest panel of Bengaluru Literature Festival focused on breaking mental health barriers and was moderated by Amandeep Sandhu, author of the novel ‘Sepia Leaves’.

The conversation involved remarkable writers and pioneers of mental health awareness. Amandeep started the session by sharing his views about mental illness and asked each of the panelists the same. 

 

According to him, it is a double-edged sword where the victim suffers alone. Contradictorily, he mentioned his third book titled ‘Journeys Through Fault Lines’, wherein he found peace in the visits of Punjab’s mental asylums. The recipient of RK Narayan award, Gayathri Prabhu put across the answer highlighting her journey that led to ‘Memoir If I Had To Tell It Again’ which was not only the outcome of the unfinished conversation with her father who passed away but also a zeal to share her story. 

 

As a professor at Manipal Institute, Karnataka, she was inspired to provide resources for the student community who shared their stories about mental illness. She shed light on the importance of her journey of 3 years as a writer, teacher, counselor, and advocate.

 

 

Himanjali Sankar, a Young Adult genre author, shared her fascination as a reader of books involving marginalized characters. She commented that her works were blurred lines between reality and fiction. Himanjali said that her teen novel ‘The Lies We Tell’ was more research-based than her personal story, as it is about a 17-year-old boy suffering from depression. Another novel ‘Mrs. C remembers’ was closely tied to her life involving a fictionalized character based on her mother suffering from Alzheimer’s. 

 

Psychiatrist Dr. Shyam Bhat’s take on mental illness was that it is difficult to describe, as it has been used as a tool for oppression throughout the history of psychiatry. Most geniuses like Galileo were labeled insane. Although we are getting better at defining mental illness, we tend to define a person’s condition in terms of words. He felt that the narrative plays an important role, reducing a person to their diagnosis makes them lose their individuality. 

As a writer, Shyam emphasized fiction having an upper hand with the power of describing mental illness and the nature of the sufferer’s emotions.

 

Bangalore based novelist Roshan Ali said the idea behind his debut novel ‘Ib’s Endless Search for Satisfaction’ was solely just writing a book, suffering from depression and anxiety impacted the storyline of the book. Jerry Pinto shared his experience editing and translating ‘A Book Of Light’ which made him understand the true sense of a writer and people with mental disorders. 

 

Columnist and Chairperson of the Board of trustees at TLLLF, Anna Chandy highlighted that she would call a person approaching her for therapy as a client rather than a patient, the reason being empathizing with their narrative. 

 

The session was informative, insightful, and also humourous. An audience member asked a question as to why genius is often confused as insanity. Jerry and Shyam had different perspectives. The former felt that when insanity can make money then it’s genius, with an example Merda d’artista faeces of an artist sold for 87,000 euros. Moderator Amandeep concluded the session appreciating the efforts of the six speakers who found themselves suffering or their closed ones fighting mental illness and shared their narratives to the world. 

 

 

 

About the Author: Ayesha is a student pursuing Media Studies, Psychology, and English. She is an appreciator of new things, places and people. She believes good food and a trip to a beach can heal the soul. Her personal blog covers themes such as mental health and travelling. She currently writes for TheSeer. Instagram handle – gudiyaaa_

 

 

Typeset, Ready, Go!

TheSeer Team

The afternoon session commenced at the Tughlaq stage with Ravinder Singh, an Indian author and a software engineer. Ravinder is a best-selling writer in romantic genre from the state Odisha, with eight successful novels to his name and a publishing house named ‘Black Ink’, which promotes aspiring writers.

 

He headed the panel discussion that included Teesta Guha Sarkar, a senior commissioning editor at ‘Pan MacMillan India’.  The other two panellists were Himanjali Sarkar, currently an editor with ‘Bloomsbury India’ and Udayan Mitra, a publisher at ‘Penguin group of India’.

 

 

Ravinder was excited to be on the other side of the table, asking questions rather than answering. He started the discourse with the statement, “Art of publishing is like a black box”. For the readers, it is all about the end product, the book or the novel, but there is a lot happening behind the curtains. The discussion was engaging with two contemporary Bengali people on either ends of the panel contradicting on various aspects of writing. Himanjali claimed that while currently in India the number of readers are at peak, but judging by extreme population, there is still a room for enhancement. Udayan enlightened the listeners about the print run scenario in India which has grown over the years from 1,000 to 3,000. 

 

Teesta advocated the fact that works of literature may be of high merit to some publishers and of none to some others. The panelists discussed and dwelled upon the aspect of good writing and what actually defines a good write-up. There were a lot of viewpoints about the importance of language and literature in publishing. There were also talks, arguments, and suggestive measures for debut author and aspiring literati. 

 

The author function was well elaborated and guidelines were provided to experiment with different genres and fusing various aspects of literature. An extensive argument was established in favour of Indian authors who have been attempting different genres. Some genres have been totally untouched like the horror and the gothic fiction. The panel also discussed the rise and fall of e-reading. Himanjali touched upon the physical literature aspect. Ravinder spoke about the dynamics of audio-visual format of literature which is now enjoying a fair share of appreciation from the Indian audience. 

 

Towards the end, the panelists also portrayed their significant worry towards the peculiar aspect of readers who tend to love western crime stories but are disinterested in reading Indian versions of crime coverage. They closed by drawing parallels to visual media in India which adores crime stories like “Mirzapur” and “Sacred Games”. They defined the guidelines for a good novel for debutants and had a hearty discussion on the questions put forward by the audience. 

 

 

 

About the Author: Abhinav Kumar is an MA in English with Communication Studies student from CHRIST ( Deemed To Be University), Bengaluru who believes in “No matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change the world”. He is interested in sports journalism and travelogue writing. He currently writes for TheSeer.