Health

We live in an odd and unbelievable world. Nothing seems normal, and distinguishing the truth from lies is an increasing challenge. The news is like a five-alarm fire. It rages and feeds on our concerns and fears. How do we escape the information ecosystem that pours like a fire hose, …

Chapter 3: Paid and Paid … This journey has taught me so many lessons—the importance of savings and insurance being two of them. When my mom passed away in 2002, the hardships associated with her illness and her subsequent funeral were evident. I was already employed at the time, and …

Little things add up—sometimes, they can sneak up insidiously so that we don’t see them coming until something happens. It’s not that signs haven’t been there, it’s that they don’t seem important enough for us to take note. Take the recent situation when Dr Joel Teelucksingh, a newspaper columnist, who …

It’s a little bit uncanny that I had wanted to return to discussing trauma, particularly the impact of bullying, before the issue raised itself vehemently in the public space. The story of five years of alleged physical abuse at St Mary’s College suffered by a student, who was expelled when …

Chapter 2 – Lost my Double Ds… Surgery day came faster than I thought it would. In the days leading up, I busied myself preparing for my absence at work—handover, early report preparation, updates, and generally tying up loose ends. In the weeks prior, my doctor had updated us based …

I never forgot the last time that I saw Imran Khan—my former St Mary’s College classmate, not the cricketer. We were on the second floor of the school one morning, and I heard a buzz in the corridor. I looked up to see Imran walking towards me with a blood-stained …

Roughly 16 years ago, I interviewed Dr Dan Ramdath, a professor of Biochemistry at The UWI, about the efficacy of olive oil, given its superstar status as a healthy food. He is currently the director of research and a clinical research scientist (Human Nutrition) at the Guelph Research and Development …

When Professor Emeritus Arnold Rampersad spoke to graduating students of the Faculty of Humanities and Education at The UWI in 2009, he drew their attention to the notion of Self. Casting himself in the role of a “scholar-critic committed to biography and autobiography” (for which he is globally acclaimed), he …

Chapter 1: Tiny Weird Identifiable Lump (TWIL)… TWIL showed up in April—or rather, I found TWIL in April. It is strange because self-exams were not a routine for me, even though I knew the importance. I always had dense tissue and would get an annual ultrasound just to make sure …

Last Wednesday, a letter to the editor appeared in the Express that was so poignant it made me abandon what I had intended to write. Exactly 25 years ago today, Daniel Bertie’s father, Trevor, was shot and killed by bandits in St Clair. “I remember everything. I remember his last …

For whatever reason, the Express posted my column last week (The Art of Forgetting) on its Facebook page with an introductory heading comprising these 30 words of the 900 I’d written. “I come from a Muslim family, and when I entered puberty I rejected Islam for telling me that menstruation …

A recent couple of conversations reminded me of how people find different ways to cope with trauma. The brain can introduce a kind of amnesia to block out emotionally shattering events. After a particularly loaded discussion, my friend said that she remembered so many painful things, that what surprised her …