Q I am a regular reader of your column and I have a personal query to ask you. I recently had a tragic experience. I lost my 16-year-old daughter to a rare disease. She was my world. We did everything to save her. Why did this happened? She had many dreams, which were not even realised. How I can get peace of mind? She passed through a painful treatment. I want to know she is in peace.
Anupama

Q. I am doing a Ph.D. in bio-chemistry from New York. Before I joined the programme, I was not interested in research. But I wanted to give it a chance to see if my interest developed. I got to join a good lab with a very supportive supervisor but I did not develop an interest despite the work environment being very encouraging. Alongside I got into cooking and I started liking it very much. But I could not generate that kind of interest in research. Initially, I decided to take leave to explore my options and thought of applying to food science programmes but now my heart is not allowing me to leave and I am not even able to focus on applying to food science course or do other things, as my heart says I should finish the work I started. I am very stressed out and don’t know what to do. Please advise.
Anonymous

I’m 18 years old, studying in standard XII. My father died last year due to which I had to repeat the year by joining a cooperative college. Since then my life has become miserable. I can’t concentrate on my studies or anything because I can’t adapt to the system followed by my new college. I curse myself for troubling my mother with my problems and also financially burdening her, which makes me to feel like committing suicide. Please help me out!

I am regular follower of your column and quite convinced of the validity of your advice. I am a 20-year-old, doing my B.Tech final year.

I am a 20-year-old Muslim girl in love with a Hindu.

Q I’m a 24-year-old student from a small city. Nothing is going right in my life. For any years I have been in severe depression and not able to sleep well at night. Now, things have gone from bad to worse when my close female friend stopped talking to me for no reason. She was the only person whom I could share everything with. I’m the only son of my parents who are working all day and they expect a lot from me and these things have drained me of all my energy. Help!
Anonymous

I am the father of two girls and I live in a small town. All my friends have at least one son or even two. Every time I meet them they seem to talk about this and make me feel inferior because I have daughters. My wife is also upset because their wives make her feel the same way. This is affecting our family as well.

I am the father of two girls and I live in a small town. All my friends have at least one son or even two.

I am a 15-year-old, from Ku-wait. I am in class IX. I am addicted to my Play-station and other video games, chatting and music. My grades are slipping and I have failed one year.

I am a second year student of engineering. I am a good student and I have very loving parents who have my best interests at heart.