About Me
I have travelled across a dozen countries, and over twenty states in India. Growing up, I thought that life was about moving from one place to another – and the only roots I could deepen, happily, were my connection with the elements. The night sky would be the same, no matter where I moved next. Back then, I didn’t see the smoke covering the skies.
It took me a long time to realise that lately, human civilisation has moved away from its roots in Nature – that people often cause each other tremendous damage. I was well into my twenties when I understood more about the trauma that I came from – and I had to deepen into my authentic self, no matter what the cost. Well, the cost turned out to be a deep dive into darkness, a personal foreshadowing of collective liberation that was coming just around the corner.
So where do you go in the face of complete undoing?
My life has taught me that experience is the greatest teacher.
Your story matters – female, coloured, queer, neurodivergent, sensitive, disabled, dalit, bahujan, adivasi, whoever you are. Claim your lived experience. Take your story in your own hands. There is no expert on your life more powerful than YOU.
Hi, I’m Arpita. I’m a brown, queer, femme, neurodivergent, fat, inter-caste, third culture kid living in the global south. I am also urban, highly educated and a native english speaker. I have been depressed with suicidal ideation, and I am a survivor of child sexual abuse. Sometimes people have asked me, why do you label and limit yourself like this?
When society limits me simply for being born, owning my labels becomes my empowerment.
I have had to learn ways to take space as myself without masking, to forgive myself for the ways in which I compromised my own integrity because I was busy thinking about other people.
I am here for you because I am learning (and will continue) to be here for myself.
Click on the stars to learn about what these labels stand for in my unique constellation
Click on the stars to learn about what these labels stand for in my unique constellation
From Isolation to Community
I am the outcome of generations of people who did not know how to show up fully for themselves or each other. In my family history, there is abuse, racism, casteism and homophobia. Both at the giving and the receiving ends.
I now seek apology and reparations for parts of me that inherited privilege. I seek forgiveness and justice for parts of me that inherited marginalisation.
As an innocent child, I learned to adapt to unnatural ways of being by masking my true self and becoming a ‘good girl’ in order to be liked.
It took decades for me to realise that I had no idea who I really was, what I want and need. My freedom came in the form of anxiety and depression that forced me to face myself in the mirror.
Through art, therapy, support spaces, dedicated self-care and nature immersion, I learned how to support myself and found community.
I learned to understand my wants and needs, to draw boundaries and express myself safely, to show up and be seen in the world.
My offerings are my way to give back to a generous, abundant world. They are cloaked in gratitude to be able to feel ALIVE.
Background
I have developed my practices and philosophies from various lineages that I have been a part of. They have helped me to work with chronic illness and maintain balanced mental health.
“One of the most valuable things one person can share with another are the gifts of knowledge, awareness, hope for the future, and the tools to make change.”
– Vandana Shiva