I write women’s fiction. So, why did I include a story about a man in the middle of my series on women who refuse to stay silent?
Because silence doesn’t just hurt women.
In many traditional families, boys are raised to hold back their emotions. They’re taught that vulnerability is weakness. That real men don’t cry. That anger is the only acceptable expression of pain.
But what happens when that boy grows into a man who’s hurting?
In Talking Is Wasted Breath, the fourth novel in my series, I explore the emotional cost of this kind of masculinity. The protagonist is a young man who’s lost his father to suicide. Raised by a mother who never encouraged open conversations, he struggles with guilt, grief, and shame.
When he falls in love, he wants to be better. To be emotionally present. But that requires unlearning generations of silence.
Talking is wasted breath, he was told. But what if it’s the only thing that can save him?
I’ve written about devadasis, dowry, colourism, and widowhood. I’ve explored themes of grief, courage, and the quiet revolution of women saying “enough.”
But this time, I wanted to show how silence damages men too — and what it takes to break that cycle.
After all, real strength lies not in repression, but in honesty.