It was the third week of January, 2015 ā my first year of university. I received a phone call. The voice saidĀ my best friend was inĀ hospital. He’d met with a road accident and was fighting...
Time: 3.43AM.Ā Distance covered: 22.7km.Ā Calories burned: 1,743kcal.Ā Current weight: 52.7kg. That was how far shame took me. At 14 years old, I was training to be a national high jumper. My fat...
I was recently at a funeral wake of someone I’m not related to. My wife’s friend’s father. Let’s call himĀ Uncle P. It was obvious that Uncle P was loved by his family,...
Joy?Ā What joy? Minds overwhelmed, we rage, avenge and despair. Our fathers turned to booze. These days it’s mantras, happiness summits, self-improvement gurus, personality tests and...
āI think Iām struggling with loneliness.ā The first time I admitted it out loud was three days ago. I was having dinner with a close friend, and we were on the topic of āthings you donāt...
OneĀ midnight in April 1999, I was pushed into the operation theatre for an emergency operation. I was then 6 weeks pregnant. My first child was growing in my right fallopian tube and the tube was...
Itās a rainy Sunday morning and the guy on stageĀ is giving his usual welcome-to-church spielĀ and, like he does every week, he refuses to let us sit down. Before we all get comfortable in our...
Fitness, once culturally confined to small communities of professional strength sports, bodybuilding, track and field,Ā is nowĀ accessible to the white-collar worker, housewife and kidĀ next door....
I woke up groggy and disoriented in aĀ bed that was not my own. I looked around and realised I was in a humid hospital ward. Beside me, an old man was wheezing violently, hands gripping onto the...