Sharing circles launched in Bengaluru as part of Manotsava 2026

Sharing circles introduced in Bengaluru as part of Manotsava 2026 Some of the matters discussed in these circles include adoption, managing family expectations, finding backing systems, reflecting on midlife, negotiating challenging family dynamics, and supporting caregiving.

Key points

• This is perhaps why Rema discovered a recent sharing circle held in Bengaluru, titled The Adoption Conversation: When do you commence?
• The idea for these circles emerged at the previous edition of Manotsava, according to Natasha Joshi, Chief of Strategy at RNP and the festival's programme curator.
• This person attended a sharing circle Photo Credit: Getty Images.
• Caregiving is another topic that will be discussed at the festival Photo Credit: SUDHAKARA JAIN.
• When the other individuals in the room already secure it, this is especially true, Lakshmi believes.

Rema, an adoptive parent to a two-and-a-half-year-old girl, is deeply aware of the impact of childhood experiences and parenting style on the development of children. "I keep reading about things and am in touch with other adoptive parents, " she notes.

This is perhaps why Rema discovered a recent sharing circle held in Bengaluru, titled The Adoption Conversation: When do you commence? How do you continue?, interesting. "I wanted to hear how other people are tackling the same situation."

Having a platform like this, where everyone is on the same page, created it easier for her to walk in and share her thoughts, without judgement, explains Rema. This person prefers to go by only her first name. "Every parent's story is different, so having a space to share was beautiful."

These sharing circles are part of a series organised as precursors to Manotsava 2026, an annual mental health festival co-hosted by Rohini Nilekani Philanthropies (RNP), NIMHANS and the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS).

Along with adoption, this series will additionally include conversations concerning family expectations, finding backing systems, reflecting on midlife, negotiating challenging family dynamics, and supporting caregiving, among others, in a safe, accepting space.

Every parent's story is so different, notes Rema. This person attended a sharing circle Photo Credit: Getty Images.

"I've always felt it to be powerful when you are able to speak your mind to someone and say what's on your mind without being judged or having someone jump in and try to help you, " notes Lakshmi Pattabi Raman, one of the sharing circle's facilitators and an adoptive parent herself. When the other individuals in the room already secure it, this is especially true, Lakshmi believes.

"It is cathartic to speak with other individuals who share the same experiences, not with the intent of solving things, but as hearing it out sometimes lightens it. And there is additionally the sense of finding community, knowing that you are not alone and that there are residents holding similar questions that puzzle, trouble, or stress them out, " Lakshmi notes.

Meanwhile, the idea for these circles emerged at the previous edition of Manotsava, according to Natasha Joshi, Chief of Strategy at RNP and the festival's programme curator. "The idea was to essentially marry neuroscience and clinical expertise with lived experience and put together a credible format for discourse on mental health, " Natasha notes of the festival. It is co-curated every year through an open call for proposals. Nevertheless, some of the proposals they received covered pertinent topics, but did not necessarily have a clinical angle or neuroscience lens, points out Natasha.

So they decided to ask the individuals who suggested these topics whether, instead of speaking concerning them on stage in a talk format, they could hold space and do it as a much more intimate sharing circle, led by lived experience, Natasha notes.

"It was a risk, in the sense that we didn't know whether there would be a demand for it and how it would actually play out in the festival. But we discovered it was superbly well-received, " notes Natasha, recalling how they concluded up having to turn hundreds of individuals away since every sharing circle was running at maximum capacity, with 50 to 80 participants.

"We had this whole experience of not just realising that the demand is greater than the supply, but that absorption capacity for this kind of thing is greater than what one imagines."

This positive reaction to the sharing circles led the team to take it beyond the confines of the festival. "We got feedback from not just the participants, but also the facilitators, who had people reaching out to them even after, saying that they didn't know such a space existed and that they wanted more of it, " notes Yashasvi Murali, Portfolio Manager, Mental Health and Gender, RNP. This person has played a crucial role in putting together these sharing circles.

Given that the facilitators, too, saw a lot of "value and potential, and given that they were willing to give their time to do more of something like this, we built on this, " Yashasvi notes.

In practice, the Manotsava team began by reaching out to plenty of of these facilitators, taking their feedback to understand what worked and what did not before getting into programming, explains Yashasvi.

"One of the constraints at the festival is that there is only so much time and so plenty of circles we can have. That is when we began thinking of having it pre-festival, expanding the window right from August with three months to follow, " Yashasvi states.

They additionally worked with facilitators to better understand how to bring diversity into these circles, not just in terms of themes and languages, but additionally trying to address the reservations and interests of residents throughout age groups which move beyond mental distress or illness to experiences that are common but challenging to talk regarding. "It is an entire spectrum, and we tried to cater to different kinds of conversations about things people may experience and want to have."

Meanwhile, the sharing circles, which kicked off on August 1 and will run until October 31 at various locations in the city, are led by both individuals with lived experience of the problem and trained mental health professionals.

"We have around 19 circles this time in Bengaluru, and about half of them are entirely lived-experience-led, while the other half is being facilitated by a therapist or professional in some trained capacity, " notes Yashasvi, pointing out that who leads a circle depends on the topic being addressed at the circle.

Irrespective of who is facilitating the session, there will be a clinician in the room, on standby for backing, in case someone needs assist, Yashasvi further adds. "While we may be looking at broader questions and themes, for a lot of individuals, it is the first time they've opened up, and this really unlocks emotions they haven't tapped into previously. In some cases, having this backing is good."

Sharing circles could support break through the loneliness and isolation of modern society. Photo Credit: Getty Images.

Notably, the larger goal of the initiative, in Natasha's opinion, is to break through the loneliness and isolation of modern society. "Not to jump the gun, but my hunch is that there is no other place that these participants have found where these conversations are happening like that, " she notes. With the resounding response to the sharing circles initiative, the founders now hope to further expand the initiative, both within the city and beyond. "We would love for sharing circles to serve as an example of self-organising spaces that every community can build" notes Natasha.

To know more, log into nationalmentalhealthfestival.com/sharing-circles.

For now, sharing circles launched in Bengaluru as part of Manotsava 2026 remains the part of the story worth watching, and further updates are likely as more details are confirmed.