Jailed at 19, Singapore poet ArunDitha has helped inmates heal through words

Her only companion: A large grasshopper that blew in from the window. ArunDitha spoke to it and felt comforted.

When I asked the 37-year-old Singaporean, whose real name is Deborah Arunditha Emmanuel, about a resonant memory from her incarceration, that was the first one that came to mind.

It may seem odd that she would recall an insect after almost two decades. But that was how alone she felt.

“When the grasshopper blew in, I just felt that I was not alone. And that (the loneliness) was the hardest thing,” she said.

“I realised that so much of my behaviour up to that point, all of the seeking and partying, had been a way for me to not confront the deep loneliness that I have experienced my whole life,” she reflected.

Writing became a means for her to find that elusive connection – with others, but most of all, herself. Over the years, she has published four books, won poetry slams (competitions where poets perform original poems on stage), and performed as a poet and singer internationally.