HOW I LEARNED THAT I DESERVE TO LOVE MYSELF
“I feel comfortable with who I am,” he responded. “I’m at ease with myself. I don’t wake up and hate myself. I can’t tell you how amazing that feels.”
“I know how that feels,” I told him.
My Boundaries, My Pleasure
I was 30 years old when memories of the sexual abuse I experienced as a child flooded my conscious thoughts. I was sitting in a session with a client – I am a mental health professional – when suddenly, a memory of playing hide-and-seek made its way out of my subconscious mind.
How I Learned That I Deserve to Love Myself
Have you ever heard the old adage, “You have to love yourself before anybody else can love you”? Well, I grew up interpreting this in the absolutely most terrible way possible.
कैसे सीखा कि मैं खुद को प्यार करने की हकदार हूँ
अभी एक दिन, एक पुराना दोस्त और मैं व्हाट्सएप पर बात कर रहे थे। उन्होंने हाल ही में एक लड़की, एक पुराने प्यार (क्रश) से बात करना शुरू किया था। वह ‘पहली लड़की’ थी जिससे उन्होंने कभी डेट के लिए पूछा था। वो उनका ‘पहला प्यार’ थी। उस दिन उन्होंने पाँच साल बाद बात की…
No One Even Knows Your Name Here
There’s a pregnant pause as he fumbles for his keys, and I, for a definitive answer. Packaged as an innocuous statement, there hangs a question between us: No one even knows your name here, in this remote corner of the antiquated town we’ve found ourselves in. And yet, we’re in front of a door, planning to know so much more.
Review: The Gaysi Zine is Envelope-Pushing, Occasionally Flawed, and Gorgeous
At the Delhi launch of the fourth edition of The Gaysi Zine, on January 21st at Max Mueller Bhavan, a conversation took place about “Boundary-Breaking Graphic Arts in India”. It was revealed that this edition’s prompt was an innocuous three-word question: What is queer? Out of that impossibly simple and impossibly difficult question, 30 extraordinarily…
The Long Route to Being Comfortable With My Sexuality
I have been out of school for close to five years. I recently met up with a friend from school after a very long time, and we got down to talking about how our peers and we have changed drastically compared to who we were back in school, and who we were expected to become…
Don’t be a (Coyote) Dick; There Are No Classy Risqué Jokes
“Vanna-cum?” – This was a Tamil-English booty call SMS I once received from a friend with benefits (reproduced here with permission, I promise). It was an atrocious, atrocious pun. I didn’t even get it at first. When I finally did, it was an acquired taste. But yes, it grew on me, and I’ve begun to…