Traitor in the House: My Bipolar Life

Sumitra watches as a priest chants the final mantras over her father’s body. Her mother slips away unnoticed, climbs to the terrace and jumps to her death. In a single, shattering moment, the little girl’s world is irrevocably altered, creating a fracture that runs through generations. 
Years later, Sumitra’s youngest daughter watches in horror as her mother swings between mania and depression, wrenching taps from the wall, running half‑naked through the streets and trying to hang herself from the fan. Shubha believes she might have escaped the family’s inheritance—until she discovers she hasn’t.
Traitor in the House is a searing account of growing up in a family shaped by bipolar disorder, and also of what it means to inherit not just a condition, but a way of seeing and surviving the world. Unflinching and honest, the memoir traces Shubha’s journey through childhood, caregiving, denial, diagnosis and understanding. But this is not only a story of hardship; it is a story of triumph.