You’re feeling blue
What do you most need when you’re swept under by the weight of life, responsibility, loneliness, or the pain of invisibility and not being heard? Therapy aside if you need it, the tonic is a shoulder to cry on, a listening ear, a pair of kind eyes looking right at you showing that person is willing to sit in the deep blue with you. No advice, tips, or sympathy. Just the sense that someone else sees you, hears you and is courageous enough to be with you in the dark.
A friend in need
My Brave New Girl guest this week is Babita Sharma, on the board of United for Global Mental Health, says the best way for a friend to help a person struggling with their mental health is to listen.
This week is our 100th episode and to celebrate, my guest is Babita Sharma.
Babitais a Broadcaster, Journalist & author of the award-winning book The Corner Shop - a Radio Four Book of the Week. She has spent 10 years presenting across BBC News & making documentaries including the landmark BBC Two series Dangerous Borders: The Story of India & Pakistan. She was awarded the Asian Achievement Award for contributions in Media, Arts and Culture.
In her brilliant book The Corner Shop, Babita describes growing up as the daughter of shop owners. As a window on the world it certainly honed her observational skills and gave scope for her imagination run riot. So when she and her sisters left home and went into a variety of professions- she chose journalism, a not dissimilar opportunity for observation and storytelling.
Being up front and personal with a steady flow of news, she learned to protect herself from the worst of it, so that she could continue to do her job, and whilst she loved the infectious nature of the news room, she did experience some mental health issues along the way.
This brought her to working with MIND for a while and then recently she joined the board of directors at United for Global Mental Health. She believes in the importance of opening up the subject of mental health so that people know how to step forward and ask for help, and also, so that as a society we make it acceptable and normal to seek support.
Now as a freelancer she continues to make powerful documentaries, is starting her own podcast and mentors journalists, in a bid to help create a landscape in the media that is more reflective of our culture in terms of diversity, inclusion & equality.
And she is also writing a new children’s book series: The Adventures of Priya Mistry , out in 2023, which explores the adventures of a young Indian girl growing up in a corner shop.
Thank you so much Babita for being the eyes on the world for us and for opening our minds and hearts to a way of seeing that brings us more understanding, more compassion and more hope. And thanks for showing us that when we act on our curiosity and compassion we have the opportunity to create a pathway for building a better world.
You can find out more about Babita on www.theblairpartnership.com and follow her on Linkedin @babitasharma
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