Who am I?
I am Ashlin – a person who never gets tired of making comics, and the consensus is that I do not get tired of listening to others either. I have always been a listener more than a speaker. Maybe it is time to speak some of the listened stories!
Why this book?
Doing something exciting with comics, something that makes me step out of comfort zones, interact, build with materials unfamiliar! I wanted to be a re-teller of untold or “told-in hushed voices” stories.
Kathan means conversation in Bangla. The word resonates with my project as it is all about conversations!
What lead me to it?
It all started from urination stories, or pee-pee stories as we call it. My friends used to casually say all these “funny “– the times where the toilet was abominable, and places where there were no toilets whatsoever. Of course, I had personal experiences related to it.
Eventually, I read in the news and also watched a docu-film of P.Viji and the protests she led with ‘Asangaditha’ or the unorganised sector of women in Kerala, and it lead to the formation of public toilets for women where it was not present.
I do remember the first time I’ve heard one of my friends say how she went to the doctor for horrible period cramps, but the only for the brilliant mind of a doctor could tell her was to get married!
I have heard also the same thing from a doctor when I consulted him for irregular periods, fatigue, and pain.
And I have seen too many testimonies of women on social media platforms trying to speak up about the bad experiences they have had in healthcare. I wanted to integrate these stories accessibly.
What I feel
The more I got into it, the more I felt, the pain of others became mine, I almost cried on hearing some, questioned the entire healthcare system, questioned the public services and government. I could help but scream through each thread, each mould, and each frame in this book.
Project Kathan 