Rituparna Sahoo is a poet, writer and storyteller from Bhubaneswar, India. Her work explores her own ever-changing emotional landscape; her neurodivergence; her state of woundedness ; and her experience of surviving child abuse, family violence, and a flawed and unethical mental health system. Her poems and stories have appeared in Litro, Wild court, Ink Sweat & Tears and Eclectica.
Setting the context:
Psychiatrists, psychologists and society at large value self-control. Emotions are generally frowned upon and are either seen as a sign of vulnerability — a sign of weakness, or are perceived as dangerous for they seem to assume some kind of rule upon one. If at all we are permitted to feel, we must limit ourselves to optimism, happiness and other “positive” emotions. We are expected to steer clear of ugly, annihilating emotions like despair, sadness and anger. So, the poems are written in the face of this oppressive expectation. Both the poems navigate those transgressive affective states; they echo the plight of someone who has endured profound abuse. However, what emerges from the unspeakable trauma is a woman who battles for survival — a woman who attempts to heal herself by applying the soothing salve of her art to the multitude of wounds she still carries.
