Everyone is blessed with mental health. It's an asset," Pattie Gonsalves says. A project director for It's Ok To Talk, an initiative by PRIDE, Sangath (a Goa-based NGO) and a platform for young people to share their experiences with mental illnesses and well-being, Gonsalves maintains that this asset should come across to people as a fundamental idea that they need to protect, preserve and promote. That's what led to the conceptualisation of a travelling museum dedicated to the mental health of young people called Mann Mela.

Mapping India
The initiative is essentially a two-year-long public engagement project led by Sangath and Quicksand Design Studio, supported by the Wellcome Trust. Its relevance grows each day — according to a Lancet medical journal study, India has the highest number of youth suicides in the world, with less than 10 per cent of this demographic having access to any kind of mental health care at all. The first step of Mann Mela entails collecting stories from individuals aged between 18 and 30. If your contribution is selected and you choose to participate, a phone interview will be conducted.