In the piece “Weary, wary and alone: From Delhi to Kerala, the mental distress Indians struggle with”, a rider recounts a 26-day, 3,200-kilometre motorcycle journey undertaken on World Mental Health Day. What began as a simple awareness campaign turned into a deeply personal listening mission across India’s emotional landscape.

Through public sessions, group discussions and hundreds of conversations with students, activists, teachers and citizens in cities and small towns alike, the author captures a common but under-discussed reality — nearly everyone met struggles with mental health, rooted not just in individual vulnerabilities but in broader structural pressures. Distress is shaped by economic insecurity (debt, low wages, job fragility), social loneliness (digital connection that deepens emotional solitude), gendered violence and a pervasive sense of political fear and surveillance.

The article argues that mental health in India is far from just a personal issue: it arises from social systems — how we work, how we communicate, how we govern, how we care. The solution, the author suggests, lies in building a “politics of care” — one that values listening over silencing, empathy over performance, and shared healing over individual resilience.