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Making women out of men: Mystifying queer desires, staging queerness in Siraj’s Māyā Mridanga
An abstract art of a spiral starting with fiery orange and yellow in the middle, with shades of blue on the outside.
Making women out of men: Mystifying queer desires, staging queerness in Siraj’s Māyā Mridanga

Māyā Mridanga infinitely problematises the nature vs. nurture debate that is central to sexuality studies. The novel seems to suggest that a certain kind of male body – feminine, smooth, shapely – is the ideal raw material for making a chhokra out of a biological man. Ustaad Jhaksa, whose life the novel documents[2], repeatedly emphasises on this act of nurturing, moulding and pruning of a feminine male body for which he has fatherly affection as well as a lover’s lust.
By Kaustav Bakshi
September 1, 2017
Making women out of men: Mystifying queer desires, staging queerness in Siraj’s Māyā Mridanga
I Column : Fiction and Sexuality
Painting of a golden moon on a dark night. The moon's light reflects in water below, and a few insects of glittery blue colour are flying around.
I Column : Fiction and Sexuality

What is fiction? Is it born of reality? Or does it birth reality, reflecting it back at me until I see the things I do not see? Until I find the person that is me? Until I dance my horse dance under moon, under stars, in a room full of people who like horse dancing just as much as they like the swirly skirt and the pot-bellied person doing the Bhangra.
By Shikha Aleya
September 1, 2017
I Column : Fiction and Sexuality
Video Page: Sita sings the Blues
Still from an animated video with Sita singing under a spotlight. Music plays on the stage around her.
Video Page: Sita sings the Blues

Sita Sings the Blues is an animated retelling of the Ramayana, an ancient Indian epic about the Hindu god Rama…
By Curated Content
September 1, 2017
Video Page: Sita sings the Blues
Interview: Shohini Ghosh
Shohini Ghosh at a film set. Lights, cameras, and reltaed instruments are hanging from the ceiling.
Interview: Shohini Ghosh

Both fiction and non-fiction are capable of great complexity if the making is in the hands of someone capable and complex. I have always held that good films – fiction, non-fiction or hybrid– emerge not from a familiarity with the subject, though that’s essential – but an understanding of the language of cinema.
By Radhika Chandiramani
September 1, 2017
Interview: Shohini Ghosh
Brushstrokes: Indian Teen Artist Reimagines Goddesses As Modern-Day Feminists
Illustration of goddesses - with one on her phone; another clicking a selfie; the third with her tongue hanging out, and makina victory sign; fourth has "Free the Nipple" written on her half-bared chest; fifth has one-third side of her head bald, and the rest has long hair.
Brushstrokes: Indian Teen Artist Reimagines Goddesses As Modern-Day Feminists

Bringing to life five goddesses from across the world, 17-year-old Priyanka Paul from India has used illustration to reimagine these…
By Curated Content
September 1, 2017
Brushstrokes: Indian Teen Artist Reimagines Goddesses As Modern-Day Feminists
The Editorial: Accessibility and Sexuality
A few men knocking the door of an old Indian house. A few other men are trying to peek into the house through a very low railing.
The Editorial: Accessibility and Sexuality

We can speak of many situations in terms of access or its lack for all kinds of people, and it will always give us insight into the society we live in in two interdependent ways: one, it reveals a polarity between who is given and who is denied access, and two, it determines the big-picture human value given to the commodity that the access is contested for.
By TARSHI
August 16, 2017
The Editorial: Accessibility and Sexuality
Reflections on accessibility and sexuality
A woman in a wheelchair, smiling, conversing with another woman who is also on a wheelchair. She has long hair pulled to one side, is wearing frameless specks, and is wearing a red and black top.
Reflections on accessibility and sexuality

I thought of myself as a feminist activist much before I formally entered the development sector space. I participated in…
By Shreshtha Das
August 16, 2017
Reflections on accessibility and sexuality
चुनौती पहुँच की – इच्छाएँ, कल्पनाएँ और विकलांगता के साथ रह रहे लोग
Still from a Hindi film 'The Dirty Picture' (2011). A brown woman has open black hair, is wearing a black bindi, and a bright-coloured, deep-neck blouse. A man behind her is touching her waist. There are piles of oranges in the garden around them. They both are singing a song.
चुनौती पहुँच की – इच्छाएँ, कल्पनाएँ और विकलांगता के साथ रह रहे लोग

प्रत्येक फैंटसी या कल्पना एक बेहद ही निजी अनुभव होती है, भले ही यह मन में ही रखी जाए या दूसरों को बतायी…
By Shikha Aleya
August 16, 2017
चुनौती पहुँच की – इच्छाएँ, कल्पनाएँ और विकलांगता के साथ रह रहे लोग
Smart Bangle that Raises Maternal Health
Two thick bangles are placed on a table. One is balanced in a vertical position as if to roll, the other is placed horizontally. One has red boundary, with thick yellow strip of colour in the middle, and a circular design in golden colour. The other one has golden boundary, and has traditional Indian design in blue and red in the middle.
Smart Bangle that Raises Maternal Health

Researchers have developed a high-tech bangle that notifies women of toxic fumes, in hopes of boosting maternal health in South…
By Curated Content
August 16, 2017
Smart Bangle that Raises Maternal Health
Striving to get information about my body
A poster. Two pairs of feet in black - one facing towards us, another away from us is in the centre. Words "SAFE LOVE" and "LOVE STORY" are written on wither side. On the top left and right are drawn man-man couple, and woman-woman couple respectively. On bottom left is a man-woman couple. On bottom right is drawn a finger on a lip, in a "shh" gesture.
Striving to get information about my body

As a 17 year old who grew up in a relatively liberal Indian household, I should probably be proud of…
By Zoya Achanta
August 16, 2017
Striving to get information about my body
From the periphery to the core: How can we hear more women’s voices from rural India?
Several young Indian rural women sitting in a row on a carpet. Some have raised their hands, as if in answer to a question. They are wearing bright-coloured sarees, and bangles. Some are wearing bindis too.
From the periphery to the core: How can we hear more women’s voices from rural India?

Neha is a proud, beaming 16-year-old. Standing on the lawns outside Delhi’s India Gate, she speaks to the camera about…
By Gram Vaani
August 16, 2017
From the periphery to the core: How can we hear more women’s voices from rural India?
Brushtrokes: Queering Bombay’s Public Spaces
Couples sitting and kissing by a beach-side of an industrailised smoggy area, with palm trees and its' leaves waving in a strong wind.
Brushtrokes: Queering Bombay’s Public Spaces

This article/photo essay was originally published in Gaysi Family. In a society that heavily restricts expressions of sexuality, openly asserting…
By Curated Content
August 16, 2017
Brushtrokes: Queering Bombay’s Public Spaces
Poem of desire and (dis)ability
A brightly coloured abstract painting consisting of painbrush lines going in all directions.
Poem of desire and (dis)ability

they say my body is broken they look at me with pity but little do they know when i scream…
By Curated Content
August 16, 2017
Poem of desire and (dis)ability
Three must-watch documentaries about disability
Two women riding a scooter. A younger Indian woman wearing a low pony-tail and a suit is on the wheel, with an older woman who is wearing a saree with which she covers her head, is sitting at the back facing sideways.
Three must-watch documentaries about disability

The First International Film Festival for Persons with Disabilities was recently organised by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment…
By Curated Content
August 16, 2017
Three must-watch documentaries about disability
Growing Up In A Bengali Household, How My Language Failed My Queer Identity
A still from a 2010 film 'Just Another Love Story'. A middle-aged man dressed in brown kurta-pajama is bowing as if in courtsey to a woman who is wearing heavy jewellery. She is holding a glass of wine or water in one hand, and chinese fan in another. She is wearing a big red bindi, dark mehroon lipstick, and kajal.
Growing Up In A Bengali Household, How My Language Failed My Queer Identity

By Anonymous for Cake: A while back, when I was toying with the idea of coming out to my parents…
By Curated Content
August 16, 2017
Growing Up In A Bengali Household, How My Language Failed My Queer Identity
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