Arwind Kumar may be a content creator who loves a good laugh, but behind every joke is a either sobering source of inspiration or a very human one
Arwind Kumar isn’t what you would expect from an online personality whose larger-than-life personas, such as the ever-witty Makcik Rosmah and Aunty Chai Ling, are both unafraid of giving their audiences a piece of their mind as they discuss topics that hit close to home, cleverly disguised as comedic skits and tongue-in-cheek satire. Behind his dramatised versions of one’s no-nonsense Malaysian aunt, the 26-year-old is in reality a gentle, philosophical soul with a righteous passion for philanthropic causes.
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Despite his sunny disposition in life, however, the journey it took for him to become the comedian cum content creator he is today was a long and arduous one—at 15, Kumar was the victim of severe school bullying, which began with derogatory taunts, estrangement from peers as well as educators alike, and had escalated to constant physical abuse. He describes one traumatising experience that had scarred him so deeply, it left him with a serious social anxiety.
“I never really talked about it with anyone before,” he admits. “But those characters you see online? They manifested because I needed something to cope with my social anxiety. Whenever I go out in public, I start getting nervous, and I definitely don’t do well with crowds. I’d feel sick and scared, like I’m drowning.
“Emotional trauma grips you in indescribable ways,” Kumar continues. “It’s so intimately intertwined with your insecurities; intrusive thoughts threaten to take over you all the time, especially self-deprecating ones where you think you’re not good enough. You start spiralling into this state of mind where you’re so hyper-focused on your faults that you start to blame yourself for what you lack. I was so struck by this debilitating fear of letting new people into my life.”
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