About Me: The Work on Belonging
- Nidhi Paralikar
- Jan 1
- 5 min read
Updated: Jan 5
I never really like school.
I don't know what it was about that place which made me feel incompetent; like I was never 'enough'. I never felt a sense of belonging. Outside school, I was a firecracker. Talkative, energetic, unapologetic. My family tagged me as "too much." But at school, I learned to be someone else entirely. Quiet, insecure, crouching with self-doubt.
As school started taking up more and more of my time and attention, I grew quieter everywhere. I learned to fold myself smaller, to take up less space, to be less. I came to believe that I was both too much and not enough.
They say the mind sometimes forgets things to protect you from pain. Mine must have done the same because I don't have many memories before the age of 12. Maybe it was because of my baba's death in 2005. Maybe it was because I spent so many years learning to be silent that I forgot what it felt like to be loud. The memories that remain are fragmented, like trying to read through frosted glass. I can see shapes and colors, but nothing stays solid long enough to hold onto.
My first real taste of freedom came in college when a classmate asked if I would help him write for an inter-college drama competition. For the first time in years, I silenced the voices in my head and said yes.
The next three years, there was no looking back. I wrote for drama, scripted short films, and even directed. It was a small community, a little broken and rough around the edges, but all mine. But with big emotions and starry-eyed dreams come creative differences and interpersonal stuff and drama of its own. Eventually, we split.
During my master's in English Literature, I poured myself into learning how stories work and why some reach across space and time. Studying drama theory gave me a new perspective. Theatre wasn't just entertainment; it was a vehicle for transformation, for belonging, for healing. After graduating in 2019, I entered book editing and marketing. For six years, I helped other people tell their stories, working with over 50 authors across fiction, non-fiction, and academic writing. I learned to listen to voices on the page, to honor what writers were trying to say while helping them say it more clearly.
And then theatre came knocking again.
A year ago, my favourite teacher from primary school approached me. As soon as the school's name was mentioned, I felt like I had become that 8-year-old kid again. She wanted me to help the school out with a theatre workshop and staging a play. I was conflicted. My love for the teacher versus my complicated feelings about the school. As it usually does in stories, love won.
I wrote a short play on neurodivergence, took a two-week workshop with some 12-13 year olds, and helped them stage the play. As I was leaving the school premises after the performance, I heard "Nidhi tai!" being called from behind me. I saw a bunch of kids from my workshop running towards me. After hugs and some tears about how we wouldn't be spending any more time together, they handed me three handmade, multi-page cards.
I came home and began reading them, not knowing that those cards were going to change my life.
In them, some wrote about never feeling a sense of belonging before the workshop. One of them wrote that she had always been told she was "too much," but the time she spent in the workshop taught her that she was "just enough." I was crying with snot and tears by the time I had finished reading them.
I knew this is what I wanted to do forever. And I knew there were others like me, young people carrying the weight of being told they're simultaneously too much and not enough. I wanted to reach them through drama, through applied theatre, through storytelling, through creating spaces where they could just be.
What I'm Doing Now
In December 2025, I completed my diploma in Applied Theatre from Applied Theatre India Foundation, learning alongside deeply motivated individuals who share this vision. I'm currently applying for PhD programs with research interests at the intersection of drama studies, education, performance studies, and gender studies. At the risk of sounding like a complete nerd, I genuinely love studying. I'm building the vocabulary and the evidence base to contribute to this work on a policy-making and implementation front, because I know that real change requires both heart and research.
I work as a freelance writer and book editor, partnering with authors to shape their manuscripts from draft to publication. I've worked with The Creative Circle Official as an Associate Editor, and served as Content Associate in the Founder's Office at Svetherm Technergies. I also facilitate applied theatre workshops for diverse groups- teachers, senior citizens, communities, and corporates.
When I'm not writing or facilitating, you'll find me journaling. I discovered art therapy after years of conventional talk-based therapy that never quite fit. When I engage my hands and eyes along with my mind, creating intricate designs on paper with markers and brush pens; or when I'm writing with my Lamy Safari filled with Diamine Matador or my TWSBI Diamond with Merlot ink, it creates pathways for me. Pathways to solutions, through anxiety, or simply to spend time with myself where the obsessive thought spirals find an outlet.
My Pilot Vanishing Point with J. Herbin 1798 Amethyste de l'Oural is reserved for special occasions. There's something ritualistic about choosing which pen and ink match the moment.
What I want to do, at its heart, is create spaces of belonging. I want to design workshops, plays, and conversations where young people, and honestly people of any age, can see that their feelings, their doubts, and their "too much-ness" are not problems but possibilities. I want to use theatre and storytelling to help them discover who they are and to carry that understanding with them as they grow.
Because I've learned something through all of this. The label of "too much" isn't about the person. It's about spaces that were never designed to hold all of who we are. And I want to help build spaces that can.
What This Website Is For
This website is a combination of things, just like me. It's a portfolio for anyone who needs applied theatre for training and educational purposes. It's a resource for writers who need an empathetic reader to help shape their stories. It's a hub for brands looking to find and articulate their story with clarity and heart.
But it's also a blog space. A place for me to write my notes and reflections about things I'm passionate about and the work I'm doing. Expect musings on theatre pedagogy, book reviews, thoughts on the writing process, reflections from workshops, and probably some love letters to fountain pens and the ritual of putting ink to paper. I might sprinkle in shout-outs to the books and movies I enjoy savouring. I am open to whatever this space of expression allows me to be, what about you?
If you're here because you need a book editor who understands voice and structure, welcome. If you're here because you're curious about applied theatre and what it can do in educational settings, welcome. If you're here because you want to explore how storytelling can transform organizations, classrooms, or communities, welcome.
And if you're here because you've ever been told you're "too much," welcome most of all. You belong here.
Based in Pune, India | Available for freelance writing, book editing, drama workshops, applied theatre facilitation, and brand storytelling projects
Contact: contact@nidhiparalikar.com
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