‘Anxiety None-O-None’ which is an ‘Illustrated book of poems For teens and young adults’ is a book different from the ‘Do-This and Don’t-do-that’ books on mental health. It is refreshingly different and the kind of book a reader will read from cover to cover.

Before I write about the book, a few words about the author. Parag Pandey and his wife Poornima are well known in the Human Resources Management field for their expertise, sensitivity, and creativity. I have known them closely for about twenty-five years. But that is not the reason for writing this review. They have written about a subject which, though not taboo, is less spoken about, much less discussed and is completely misunderstood.

My initiation in this subject began with my work on spreading mental health awareness with a Mumbai based organization in mid seventies when we screened the short films of National Film Board of Canada made in association with National Psychiatric Association of Canada to the employees and their families. It was followed by long discussions of the films, and the issues they raised. What I realized was that mental health was a subject of which awareness was low, and it also gave rise to more complicated problems for the patient and the care-givers.

Dr Anand Nadkarni who is a resident of Thane like the Pandeys, has done stupendous work in spreading mental health awareness. His several videos on the subject and their popularity, particularly among the Marathi speaking population, is the testimony to their outstanding work.

‘Anxiety None-O-None’ fills a missing slot in this field. For more than one reason: It is borne out of personal experience, but the author does not speak about it and obviously avoids glorifying it. The book is written in verse, simple enough for even school going kids to understand. And it “might well be the first illustrated book of poems on coping with and overcoming anxiety, for teens and young adults, created, with the help of generative AI.”

The author declares “Each final illustration you see is visualized, edited, and composed by me in Canva from various images created using Midjourney, a generative AI tool. Every final poem borrows bits and parts from several drafts generated by me using Chat GPT, in order that, when put together, it reasonably conveys my family’s experiences and learnings.”

There are 50 poems. Simple to understand (and hum them) and with a clear message.

“When you repeatedly feel down and blue/ Don’t fight it all by yourself, it’s true/ Promptly seek and follow medical advice/ Don’t let the idiots make you think twice/”

This short book is full of such verses which provide the right advice on mental health.

I love these lines from ‘Embrace Disclosure’.

“Don’t hide in shadows, don’t run from view/ Embrace disclosure, let your truth shine thru/ Anxiety can make you shy and conscious/ But revealing struggles makes you tenacious”

This is the right advice given in a simple language. Men and women who are otherwise chatterboxes shy away from disclosing what ails them, not physically but emotionally too. The corporate world places enormous emphasis on feedback as the tool for self-development, ignoring the other tool, self-disclosure. People understand us better when we share our thoughts and feelings. Contrary to the popular belief, people usually volunteer to help, they do not make fun of us if we practice self-disclosure. Timely disclosure can get us the much-needed help. That is why these lines resonate.

This book is an ideal read for young and adults alike. We tend to remember poetry more easily than prose. More so if it is simple and straight from the heart. That is yet another reason why this book scores over many other books on mental health. A must read, strongly recommended.

Pandey, Parag Dhruva Anxiety None-O-None : Tara’s 50 ways of helping Baaghu to overcome anxiety: Illustrated book of poems for teens and young adults. Kindle Edition. 

Pic courtesy: Mohamed Hassan on Pixabay, mprietou on Pixabay

Vivek S Patwardhan

“What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others.”