There's Something About Mira

by Sonali Dev

The thing about pain management is that treatments work better when the person in pain is the one doing the work to make it stop. This usually involves walking right into your pain to get to the other side. Often sitting on the edges of your pain, with the discomfort you’re used to, is easier than digging into the unknown root of it where its unbearable intensity lives.

can we ever leave our prisons behind? They built them into us. It’s all they’ve ever done from the day we were born, turn us into our own prison cells.

“Do you always take responsibility for everything that goes wrong in the world? There are several wars going on right now that no one wants to take blame for. They might need you.”

what she is on the outside keeps everyone from paying any attention to who she is on the inside. To everyone who looks upon her, especially men, she is a shell inside which they can place whatever they want to believe. I think it’s an experience all women relate to.

“People are dicks, Miru. Society has given them permission to be dicks as long as their evil is focused on those who can’t protect themselves.”

I think about myself on that rock, letting out years of pain. About how I feel right now: lighter, free to be angry. Like the fury gathered inside me is something I earned the right to.

“We’re all eating each other’s food on this earth, child. Never feel guilty to eat when you’re hungry. Just remember to feed the hungry when you can.

How one approaches parenting is about the person you are.

The act of growing a spine hurts, but it doesn’t seem reversible.

This is not about being liberal or not being liberal. This isn’t about Romona Auntie being okay with Saket. This is about you thinking that being okay with Saket is a choice you get to make, let alone something you have to do for me. This is about the fact that we’re even having a conversation that reduces real human beings to an issue you’re compromising on.”

“It is hard to do the thing you want when you’ve been taught that doing what others want means loving them.

I might still put others first sometimes, but I want to have a choice, a real choice. Not one that makes me feel halved and quartered.