[Reader-list] Writer seeking stories of male child sexual abuse

[Chintan Girish Modi]

Forwarding Amandeep Sandhu's message from Facebook

Dear Friends,
this is an exercise in trust and I need your support. Please read the note
below and share it with your friends. I hope the message reaches a larger
number of people and some of us can contribute to a book I am putting
together in the next few months.

Most of us are either parents or would be parents and we know that among
the various horrors that can happen to children, one of them gets
very little attention in our society - *Male Child Sexual Abuse*. I plan a
book of first hand accounts of survivors of such abuse, counselors,
experts, and perpetrators (if possible). I seek your help to be a bridge
between a survivor and me because I feel these personal accounts can only
come out in an environment of trust, warmth and security. If sought by a
survivor, I promise trust and confidentiality to each survivor who writes
to me, contacts me.

Allow me to explain why I want to create this book. Both my novels (*Sepia
Leaves*, 2008, *Roll of Honour*, 2012) deal with the subject but I feel we
need to bring about much greater awareness and sensitization to survivors
of this form of abuse. In my experience I have found that boys who go
through abuse confuse love and abuse. Love is subjectification of the body
and abuse is objectification of it. Unless a victim works on the abuse and
on healing, an abused boy can either become an inhibited man or an
aggressive one. Both are not healthy and can create cycles of violence both
internally and externally. My novels are both memoir/fiction and are
located in dysfunctional spaces. Normally breakdown of systems, family and
school, lends spaces to sexual violence. But the bigger stories are those
that get buried. Those that live as noises in the head and the ones which
haunt us. I seek those stories. From you.

Please write in. I seek your help. I am listening. I also welcome any
questions or clarifications on intent and purpose of the book.
My email id: aman at amandeepsandhu.com
My website: www.amandeepsandhu.com
Regards,
Aman

PS: Here is a bit of coverage on each of my books:

- *Sepia Leaves*: a story of a family living under the shadow of
schizophrenia from a young boy's point of view, based in a steel town
during Emergency.
http://www.hindu.com/lr/2008/07/06/stories/2008070650300700.htm<http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hindu.com%2Flr%2F2008%2F07%2F06%2Fstories%2F2008070650300700.htm&h=pAQETHHFA&s=1>

- *Roll of Honour*: a story of the split loyalties of a Sikh boy in a
boarding school in Punjab during the Khalistan movement, based on the
events of the year 1984.
http://www.thehindu.com/arts/books/the-need-to-remember/article4195544.ece<http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thehindu.com%2Farts%2Fbooks%2Fthe-need-to-remember%2Farticle4195544.ece&h=gAQEUHLAd&s=1>