Topic: The Silent Bully

Good Morning and Welcome to yet another episode from Anon streams, I am
Anahita Jain your host for this episode and today we are here with a
brilliant freelancing psychologist, Dr. Chetna Lakhotia who was an ex
Professor at the Indian Institute of Psychology and Research (IIPR),
Bengaluru and has been teaching since 2012. She has also conducted
Professional development programmes, soft skill & employee wellness
workshops, and mental health seminars for young adults both online and
offline and has published a number of articles in several research papers
in reputable national and international journals. Ma’am we are so honored
to have you here, how are you feeling right now?

So without further ado let’s start with the questions.

1. While bullying is a popular subject and almost all of us have some
take on it, I am curious to know what your take on it is, what do you
think is bullying? Is it just verbal or physical assault or beyond that?
2. Ma’am I would like to share a very personal experience with you, a
friend of mine, a cancer survivor, experienced emotional pain when
she returned to school after COVID with short hair. Although no one
teased her or made comments about her hair, she seemed upset,
spoke less, and withdrew from events. One day, I found her crying in
the bathroom and discovered that her pain was not physical but
emotional. She revealed that people who were once friendly with her
now kept their distance, rolled their eyes, and acted as if she didn't
exist. I was deeply disturbed by the shallowness of my classmates'
behaviour. Do you consider this situation to be bullying? Can non-
verbal actions sometimes be more hurtful than verbal ones?
3. Ma’am after this instance with my friend I just did not know what
advice I could give to her or even what I could do to help her. I
thought about reporting this but since there was no verbal or physical
abuse I just didn’t know what to say. What is your advice on this
ma’am, how can one tackle such bullying himself and how can
another person help this person overcome this?
4. How do we raise awareness among children and people about this
kind of bullying? What part do you think each one of us can play?
Thank you so much ma’am for being a part of this session with us. It was an
absolute pleasure to have you and personally I really have to say that I have
learnt a lot from you and would definitely try adopting some solutions you
have given us
Thank you ma’am, and thank you listeners for being a part of this wonderful
episode. We hope you enjoyed and learned something new. Stay tuned for
the next episode very soon!