#7 Bushra Mollick - Fatherless daughter, Bangladeshi American

Bereavement Room

Today's guest in the room is Bangladeshi American, Bushra Mollick.

Bushra is a writer and the Crisis Communications Manager for NYC Emergency Management. She is writing a biography highlighting her mother's life in Bangladesh and as an immigrant in New York City in the early 90s. She enjoys bird watching, cooking, and researching outdated blasphemy laws. She hopes to empower and inspire fellow Bangladeshi women to fulfil their dreams and put themselves first.

In this episode we discuss our bengali community, culture and the wider Desi community followed by a heart wrenching reflection of the sudden death of her estranged father.

Bushra often talks about how our community is not a monolith on social media, this captured my interest because as someone who was ostracized by some Bengalis but largely the wider South Asian desi community that I speak like a white girl and was the brown girl living on the white council estates, I wanted to unpack what it means to not make assumptions about our unique journey in life, we conclude that ultimately we are not a monolith that we all have our own experience of the world and that it would be helpful to not make assumptions about lives we have never lived.

Bushra takes me through her childhood growing up in NYC and how she grew up watching her father who was a taxi driver by day and a creative by night, a writer and photographer in the bengali community.

Bushra reflects that you can mourn a parent that you are estranged from, that everyone wants to be loved and that although they were estranged due to the lack of parental guidance she names the fact that she still loved her father and that's what makes estranged relationships between a parent and a child so unique, that she will never stop loving him and wishing that he was a better father in life.

Bushra has written a beautiful heart wrenching tribute to her father on her blog http://www.bushramollick.com/ please do give it a read, there is a stunning black and white photo of Bushra and her sister Susana with their dad, the last picture taken of them together.

You can find Bereavement Room on social media give us a follow: https://www.instagram.com/bereavementroom/

As promised some hotlines, resources and support groups in NYC and surrounding areas;

https://nycwell.cityofnewyork.us/en/

https://www1.nyc.gov/site/hra/help/domestic-violence-support.page

https://www.naminys.org/mental-health-support/suicide-prevention/

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/groups/grief/new-york

https://greenwichvillagefuneralhome.com/grief-support/counseling-bereavement-services/#.YPQVqxNKiCQ

https://copefoundation.org/grief-resources/

https://www.inclusivetherapists.com/bengali

https://www.laalnyc.org/

https://www.thetrevorproject.org/

As promised some helplines, resources, support groups in London and surrounding areas;

https://directory.childbereavementuk.org/

https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/guides-to-support-and-services/seeking-help-for-a-mental-health-problem/where-to-start/

https://www.time-to-change.org.uk/mental-health-and-stigma/help-and-support

https://youngminds.org.uk/

https://myh.org.uk/

https://mbss.org.uk/

https://www.baatn.org.uk/find-a-therapist/

https://giveusashout.org/

https://mindout.org.uk/

As always thank you for listening,

Your host

Callsuma Ali