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The Mother Who Cannot Celebrate Herself Without Her Children’s Achievements | Bharosa Her friend asked her, over coffee, what she had done for herself lately. She opened her mouth to answer. Nothing came out. She tried again. Her daughter had just won a debating competition. Her son had got into a good school. Her husband […]

The Mother Who Lives Vicariously Through Her Daughter | Bharosa Her mother had wanted to be a doctor. The family could not afford the fees. She was married off at twenty-one, and the dream was quietly put away in a drawer where dreams go when there is no room for them. Forty years later, her

When Giving Birth Became the Only Thing She Was Praised For | Bharosa Before her son was born, she had many things to do. A journalist who had won a regional award. A reader who finished two novels a month. A runner who had completed a half-marathon in her second year of college. A sister

Husband Never Hit You But Still Afraid? Hidden Emotional Abuse | Bharosa Her husband has never hit her. She repeats this to herself, often, when her mind begins to wonder whether what she is living with is actually abuse. He has never hit her. He has never even shouted, really, not in the way her

Gaslighting in Indian Marriage: When You Stop Trusting Your Memory | Bharosa She was sure he had said he would be home by 8. She had planned dinner around it. When he walked in at 11 and she asked him about it, he looked at her with the specific, calm expression she had come to