Carol D'Souza, Author at In Plainspeak

Carol D'Souza

Date Name

Desc Asc

Two glasses of chai with rusk/dry biscuits to share

Having a Tea with You

On calls your voice greets me, balm to the parched everything.

By Carol D'Souza

October 15, 2025

Having a Tea with You

monarch butterfly perched on yellow sunflower in close up photography during daytime

Two Poems: “Hidden Costs of Promiscuity” and “Volition”

I gargle away the itch in the tonsils accompanying this persistent flu.

By Carol D'Souza

April 18, 2024

Two Poems: “Hidden Costs of Promiscuity” and “Volition”

What is your verb

Khusro to Bullah. Ada to Parveen
यह, वह, वो

He, she, they
Lover or Beloved? Woman or Man?

By Carol D'Souza

March 1, 2023

What is your verb

Two Poems: ‘A room of one’s own’ & ‘Sunshine’

A room of one’s own You couldn’t begin to say the self Before someone helps you finish — Self-centred Self-serving…

By Carol D'Souza

September 19, 2022

Two Poems: ‘A room of one’s own’ & ‘Sunshine’

Photo of a trees in a forest. There is little distance between the trees. At the centre is a singular tree with twisting and gnarly branches.

Two Poems: ‘Only sometimes’ & ‘No filter’

Only sometimes Sometimes my love is as expansive as the earth itself Patient None of the restlessness of a…

By Carol D'Souza

May 3, 2022

Two Poems: ‘Only sometimes’ & ‘No filter’

A photograph depicting two hands reaching towards each other, but not touching, in a darkened backdrop

Three Poems: ‘Untitled’, ‘Alchemy’ & ‘Third date’

He said ‘tender’ today/in such a way/I thought/I’d definitely like him saying/dirty things to me

By Carol D'Souza

February 1, 2022

Three Poems: ‘Untitled’, ‘Alchemy’ & ‘Third date’

Murderously simple thing

“She rightly read the moment while I stumbled through a second-hand text.” – Jeanette Winterson But second-hand texts lay…

By Carol D'Souza

April 5, 2021

Murderously simple thing

Themes

In Plainspeak publishes one issue every month, with a single theme running across two months. Our aim is to expand safe, inclusive self-affirming spaces.

CURRENT ISSUE:

February-March 2026: Digital Intimacies and Sexuality

With ever-increasing (for most of us) access to and reliance on digital modes of connecting, we are no strangers to digital intimacies – erotic, sexual, platonic, emotional – on social media, gaming platforms, dating apps, and so on. While digital spaces afford possibilities of sexual freedom and pleasure, they also hold the threat of surveillance, exposure, and abuse. So what do we do to optimise our experience? Do we use different modes of self-representation, visibility/anonymity and self-censorship on different platforms? How do factors like queerness, ethnicity, caste, a/sexuality, and disability play out in the creation and sustenance of digital intimacies? Are the sexual intimacies that digital spaces afford congruent with those in our offline lives? Must they be, or is there a particular thrill in their not being so? What is ‘authenticity’ when it comes to our online persona/e and our sexual lives? These are some of the questions that this issue of In Plainspeak engages with.

फरवरी – मार्च २०२६: डिजिटल अंतरंगता और यौनिकता

हम में से अधिकांश लोगों के लिए डिजिटल माध्यमों तक पहुंच और उन पर निर्भरता लगातार बढ़ती जा रही है, और सोशल मीडिया, गेमिंग प्लेटफॉर्म, डेटिंग ऐप्स आदि पर डिजिटल अंतरंगता – कामुक, यौनिक, गैर-यौनिक, भावनात्मक – हमारे लिए कोई नई बात नहीं है। डिजिटल स्थान यौन स्वतंत्रता और आनंद की संभावनाएं तो प्रदान करते हैं, लेकिन साथ ही निगरानी, पर्दाफाश और हिंसा का ख़तरा भी पैदा करते हैं। तो हम अपने अनुभव को बेहतर बनाने के लिए क्या कर सकते हैं? हम विभिन्न प्लेटफॉर्मों पर आत्म-प्रतिनिधित्व, दृश्यता, गुमनामी और आत्म-नियंत्रितता को कैसे अलग-अलग तरीक़ों से इस्तेमाल करते हैं? क्वीयर होना, अयौनिक होना, यौनिकता, जातीयता, जाति, और विकलांगता जैसे कारक डिजिटल अंतरंगता के निर्माण और उसे बनाए रखने में क्या भूमिका निभाते हैं? क्या डिजिटल मंचों द्वारा प्रदान की जाने वाली यौनिक अंतरंगता हमारे ऑफलाइन जीवन की अंतरंगता के अनुरूप है? क्या ऐसा होना ज़रूरी है, या फिर ऐसा न होने में एक ख़ास रोमांच है? हमारी ऑनलाइन पहचान और हमारे यौन जीवन के संदर्भ में प्रामाणिकता (ऑथेंटिसिटी) क्या है? इन प्लेनस्पीक का यह अंक कुछ ऐसे प्रष्नों पर विचार-विमर्श करता है।

Would you like to contribute? Take a look at our submission guidelines!

For future issue themes, click here.

We would love to know what you think of us! Share your thoughts in this feedback form.

Disclaimer

We curate content from other portals to amplify discussion around sexuality and rights. All rights remain with the original sources. Corners and Videos are embedded links and Brushstrokes and Blogrolls are republished from open sources with a link back to the original source. Older links may no longer be available.

We mostly use images with a Creative Commons license. If you are the owner of an image and find that the image has not been credited properly, please let us know at inplainspeak@tarshi.net.

In Plainspeak

Carol D'Souza

IN PLAINSPEAK is published by

Follow TARSHI

GET EACH ISSUE IN YOUR INBOX