The Habit of Being Seen is a literary memoir by Cleven Michael Raj J, set largely in Chennai, India.

It follows Kevin, a narrator who grows up in a reserved, undemonstrative household and learns early that silence and invisibility feel safer than being truly seen — a "bargain" that carries him through school, quietly capable but never quite known by the people around him. The book traces what happens when that bargain stops working: a move away from home for postgraduate study, a breaking point, and the long, unglamorous work of learning to name fear as fear rather than as identity. Along the way, a steady friend (Arun) and a growing relationship (Leela) become mirrors that help Kevin practice boundaries, honesty, and closeness instead of avoidance — including a hard conversation with his parents and a relapse that tests whether the change is real. It closes with Kevin arriving at a more sustainable, if imperfect, practice of letting himself be visible.