Black Lotus

 In 2016 I took readmission into AV College of Arts, Sciences and Commerce. The previous attempt in 2015 ended up being ruined and I had to redo all exams of first and second year intermediate in one sitting in 2016. I have a lot of people I owe thanks to, Ajmal is along the first names on that list. Being able to select Psychology as one of my three majors and convincing my parents for the same in and of itself was a milestone to say nothing of the tonnes of other things I was able to achieve and accomplish. From as early as I can remember, although I was never the class or school topper I always won some positions in co-curricular and extracurricular activities. GK competitions, fancy dress, talent shows, whatnot. But it was only during my bachelor's that my personal life outside the class bloomed. For one I had an Activa, made a huge social circle, bunking college was a fad and being a rebel was the norm. Towards the end, I was in fact such a huge success that I ended up becomin...

The year is 2011. I'm distraught, we had to (sneakily) come back to Hyderabad. Although all of our papers were always in place for some reason it felt a matter of shame to tell my 'friends' I wouldn't be returning back to school from summer vacation. So while everyone made plans for summer camps and whatnot, my family left everything behind to permanently shift back to Hyderabad. At that point, I suppose it was a big change for everyone. Dad had spent most of 3 decades in the gulf with nothing to show for it. And mom had to huddle in Hyderabad with 4 kids in tow. My eldest brother was in OU still pursuing his engineering, the second one newly taking Admission into KV, while I along with my younger sister would take admission into Azra Public School. Azra was the nearest CBSE school to my home where we could choose to forgo Telugu as our second language because my sister and I knew thanks to our earlier experience, we wouldn't be able to study Telugu for the life of ...

My name is Mudassir Mohsin Jowher (he/him) and at the time of writing this, I'm a 25 y/o Indian Sunni Muslim Male Counseling Psychologist. This story takes place when although I was an Indian Sunni Muslim Male, I wasn't a psychologist. In fact, back then I was an NRI (non-residential Indian). I was born and brought up in Abu Dhabi, UAE till I was 13 years. I was the third child of an immigrant family with no immediate relatives in the country. Growing up in the middle East got me acquainted with concepts of flat life, living as immigrants, what it means to live pay cheque to pay cheque, facing property issues back in India, having to miss out on almost all family functions, making family instead of having one, the role friends can play in one's life and so much more. My dad would be a major character in a lot of stories that are personal to me. You see he had a psychiatric issue while mom was pregnant with me and that went on to shape a lot of things that happened thereafte...

With everything everywhere. Everyone knows how I am. It's funny it's terrible. How not many even said all the best. I start my first day tomorrow. I even joked about it. But not many said all the best to you. I heard them say that they know I'm gonna nail it. They told me don't worry you got it. They said those folks are in safe hands. They told me it was okay to take it slow. They told me they know I'll do great. But not many told me all the best. I think they know I can do it. I think they believe I got it. I think they're sure it's Mudassir! after all, of all people why'd he fret? But I get cold feet too. I wish more people had told me all the best. I kept sharing the news with people even before it was confirmed. I think mostly because I wanted someone to say how proud they're of me and that all the best. But only a few said it. Only very very few said it. I wish more people had told me all the best.

My dad has been a patient of chronic anxiety from the past two and a half decades while one of my cousins is autistic. Many people in my friends and family have dealt with serious psychological ailments, a few of them have even lost their loved ones to suicide and depression, as a direct result of maladjustment. Over time I kept witnessing the far-reaching impacts of Mental Health-related issues in our communities.  All of this prompted me to think of a way to live life. Growing up I read a lot of western and eastern Philosophy among other things which heavily influenced and helped shape my thinking. And I started with 'How good would it be if we had a universal benchmark of what a mentally healthy person should be like?' One thing lead to another until I finally started my journey into Psychology. I was a typical teenager with angst and anxiety growing up and have been in and out of counselling sessions throughout my intermediate. And all of that pushed me to take up Psycholog...

A Three-part article series on Blog; Blogging and Bloggers  An Article on Articles  And other things...  Part 3. And Other Things…  the Little things . ( idiom )  The unimportant matters, the minor concerns. This term dates back to the ancient Romans, or perhaps even further. Writers have deemed little things either as too trivial to make a difference (Ovid: “Little things affect little minds,” repeated by Disraeli and Oliver Goldsmith, among others) or as being the building blocks of important matters (Browning: “We find great things are made of little things”).  Having dealt with the basics of the technicalities and the particularities, what else do we have left here? (In the context of blogging, successfully, I mean.) Well begun is not necessarily half done especially so when you’re not sure what the end goal is! Before we continue; I really do hope you’ve read Part 1 and Part 2 of this series. If you’re still here, please have a blog as you continue r...