I Go Quiet - a story of masks we wear and of silences
Rajeev Ranjan Jha 
The Book: I Go Quiet
Reading the book “I Go Quiet” was a classic example of how a children’s book with spare text and magestic (sometimes haunting) illustrations can take us - adults - into a collective inward journey. The book offered us a mirror into our own experiences of silence, masking and our deep desire to be seen.
Masks we wear
The book showed the girl and other people in the illustrations carrying a mask with them. The masks, to us, symbolised the idea of pretending to be okay, or performing roles expected by society. The illustrations of industrial-style buildings and masked figures with blank stares evoked reflections on school, work and the social pressure to conform. We also talked about the emotional labour involved in wearing masks and the toll it takes on us.
“Everyone is feeling the same but everyone has masks on so they feel alone” A reflection shared during the reading
What we hear and fail to hear in silences
“Going quiet” is sometimes perceived as a sign of shyness but is likely a response to overwhelm or trauma. Silence can also become a medium for self-protection for a lot of people. In this sense, silence often becomes a voice which the outside world fails to hear.
We talked about different kinds of silences - chosen ones, silence which is oppressive and silence which are signs of suppression. We discussed how silence can lead to isolation but can also bring safety & connection.\
“I hate that an individual has to question themselves all their life just because someone made you feel unloved, not welcomed, treated you as an outcaste. There is so much effort that goes into unlearning and relearning and knowing that we don’t need to blame ourselves for what others did to us”. - Another reflection by a participant
When I am heard, I will build cities with my words
An escape
The girl in the story finds an escape from the oppressive quietness through the books. She discovers and starts building an internal world through her readings - the world which is in the shape of her imagination.
“Books and music are like airplanes - they connect far distances.” - how a participant connects through books and music
Places we go when we are quiet
To close the reading, we each shared where we go when we go quiet. For some, it was a balcony or a park; for others, a walk by the river, a room filled with music, or a page in a favorite book. Nature came up often — trees, hills, dogs, birds, and skies. And there was space, too, for the dark side of quiet — quietness that brings haunted and difficult memories.
Yet, we felt bound by a shared understanding: that in our quiet, something stirs. Imagination. Insight. Longing. Voice.
“The CBA space is also one of my quiet places”. - A participant sharing the quiet places in their life
We felt proud that in a noisy world, we, as a community, had carved a space where quiet is honored, where silence is not emptiness but an invitation - to reflect, to connect and to begin again.
The community in a quiet space
This reading was facilitated by Asma Ansari and Akanksha Mitra
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