Baby Invisible
A woman’s body is the site of power games, moral policing, community identity. How does it experience pleasure which is an individual thing?
Womanhood
A Voice To Shatter The Glass Ceiling
I broke a glass ceiling of my own, as a student representing my college on the campus festival circuit.
This Body Is Home
This boxy is a box. It is not me. When you trap my identity in labels of gender, regional feature, skin colour, this body makes me feel like a prisoner.
Red On The Floor
I thought about people who hit me. In plural. I experienced enough before adulthood. Yet at 23, when a man I loved hit me, I knew something was wrong.
Men Who Feed Me
I had a bad relationship with food & men. Being female meant being food provider. Social rules turned to acid in my stomach. Eventually they’d pour out of my mouth as bilious words, undigested pressure. I asked shaadi boys if they could cook before their moms could ask me. No…
Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word
I asked women to tell me about when a man apologised to them. A genuine, responsible, heartfelt sorry.
Men With Dark Pasts – Indian Matrimony’s Vyasar
We glorify the dude with the dark past. The slightest chink in the brick wall facade that he calls a personality, is celebrated. But does he deserve us?
A New Solidarity
Solidarity is seen as a quality used to protect wrongdoers from consequences. Everyone is made to participate as a virtue.
We Should All Be Nightiewali Aunties
I saw a trio walk down the main road last night. As they passed under the street light, I caught a flash of familiar fabric swathes across their bodies. Dupattas, hijabs, masks – who could say? Immediately the thought sprung to my mind – ‘The Nightiewali Aunties’.
Saree-Wearers Club
There is a sense that the Saree Wearers’ Club is an exclusive one, limited to women who are married or of a certain age, have a certain body shape and even they wear it in certain ways & on occasions only.