‘Sharing can be healing’
Sharing sorrows can help and heal. Ask Anoushka Shankar about it! After hinting fans about having to undergo a “major surgery” in June, it was in August that the sitar virtuoso put out a ‘Lady Bits’ post on Twitter, enunciating her battle with sexual health, a double uterus surgery and shortterm depression. And she’s glad that the fact that sharing her own ordeal helped some people deal with their own issues.
Touched by the response to her post, she says, “I had a hunch that people are just not talking about all this stuff on women’s health. And if it connects with women’s sexuality and women’s sexual health, it’s just not spoken about. I thought that’s a really horrible thing because so many women are going through the same difficulties, but they are just not getting the support they need.”
Being in the position she is in, she knew “if I am going to speak about it, it’s going to make a difference”.
“I got a message from someone who was going through the same thing, and she said the post helped her face it and get the treatment needed. That made me very pleased, and that’s why I think it’s so important to keep talking,” she says.
Anoushka strongly believes in the power of connections, and finds it incredible how women — and even men — show up for other women when they go through some difficulty.
“There’s so much power in just speaking and telling other women that they’re heard as well. Just that in itself can be healing. But it can also have a more practical and large effect and impact. So, it’s an important first step,” adds Anoushka, who is mother to two sons.
All through her health struggle, she says her kids have been a “real focus” for her. “It feels very different going through any difficulty with kids. I feel I have to be stronger and I have to go on,” says the 38-year-old composer-musician, who has recently launched a new song and is gearing up for some live shows.
For next year, she has big plans to mark the 100th birth anniversary of her legendary father, the late Pandit Ravi Shankar.
“We’re starting to develop and plan the centenary concerts that we will be doing in a few cities around the world. I am putting that together with my mom, and we are trying to make it as special as we can.” And India, of course, is on the radar. She says, “We couldn’t do it without India!”
There’s so much power in speaking and telling other women that they’re heard as well. Just that in itself can be healing.
ANOUSHKA SHANKAR
MUSICIAN