I was considered a tragedy: Shubham Khan – Times of India

In an ongoing session at Times Litfest 2021, where he launched his latest memoir ‘How I Accidentally Became a Global Stock Photo’, author Shubham Khan takes us along on his journey in life in conversation with writer-columnist Natasha Badhwar . The journey, not easy, failed because of social prejudice, inequality, stereotypes, trolling, loneliness, depression, apartheid and prejudice, but also self-discovery, because it turned her into the person she is today. Fighting her way through life, Shubham shares how being the fourth girl in a patriarchal, Muslim household declared her a tragedy at the time of her birth, but decided against it. In the closing lines of the first chapter of her new release, Shubham writes, “All I know right now is that I should have been a tragedy, but I am not.”

After becoming the mother of three daughters, the way Shubham became a victim of the misconception, she also harassed Natasha. In her book, ‘My Daughter’s Mum’ she shares the enormous amount of malpractices that still exist in society, and how her writing, like Shubham’s, came out of the pain she felt seeing the despair in people’s eyes.

Questions of identity are explored extensively in Shubham’s new book, as she writes about her life, where she struggled to break out of those boxes and carve a niche for herself. Challenging the stereotypes and perceptions that confined him, Shubham spoke of growing up in severely alienated South Africa, where apartheid was so strictly imposed that he was forced to live in the country other than his caste. Little or no information was known about the existence of other castes.


The incident from which his book got its name, ‘How I Accidentally Became a Global Stock Photo’ took place in college, where he signed up for a photoshoot as part of a college project, but every billboard, billboard and place his Found the picture Should not happen. The privacy violations she faced were greeted with rumours, insults and trolling on social media, where she was called ‘reckless and stupid’ for letting the incident happen. Putting an end to all this, Shubham decided to write about his experience. “I wrote a series of funny stories only to realize later that this was a really big tale of being brave,” says the author.

Her journey through depression and loneliness while living in China was a step toward achieving self-love, as she now feels in retrospect. He believes that solitude has helped him see himself as his person and develop a healthy relationship with himself. That’s when his struggle for an identity ended. “I lived single in a society where your entire existence is often placed on where you stand in society, whether you have a husband or not, whether you have children or not. But I didn’t feel like it meant my Kahaani kame ho jaye, I thought that is why I should tell my story,” said a happy Shubham, who believes her story will encourage others to do the same.

(Byline: Bhavya Sharma)