Interview Archives • In Plainspeak

Interview

Date Name

Desc Asc

So I am realising now that for me the space of borderlessness applies to everything. It applies to the physical and topographical border as it does to the borders we create between gender and their expressions. I think I would like to argue for a truly borderless understanding of the world.

By Shikha Aleya

March 17, 2023

Interview – Kiran Bhat

Self-care is influenced by the environment we inhabit, the way we relate to others, the way we negotiate with other living beings or structures. Self-care is also interlinked with other types of care – whether that is in community resources, psychosocial support, engagement with medical and health care institutions, and of course in collective agency and solidarity.

By Shikha Aleya

February 4, 2023

Interview – Anjlee Agarwal

Photo of Sameera Khan. She has long black hair and is standing in a garden. She is wearing a black kurta, a deep emerald dupatta and a black necklace.

“इन युवा महिलाओं नें तो हमारे विचारों को और आगे तक पहुंचाया है, और महिलाओं द्वारा सार्वजनिक स्थानों तक पहुँच पाने के नए आंदोलन खड़े किए हैं। इसमें उनका देर रात तक बाहर रहना, महिला हॉस्टल में लगाई जा रही समय की पाबंदियों को ठुकराना, और महिला शौचालयों और सार्वजनिक यातायात तक अधिक सुलभता पाने की मांग करना शामिल है।”

By Shikha Aleya

February 2, 2023

साक्षात्कार – समीरा खान

A photograph of MHI director Raj Mariwala; she is playing with a grey-brown dog, squatting in grass.

By Shikha Aleya

January 3, 2023

Interview – Raj Mariwala

photograph of Prof Srila Roy leaning against a wall with her hands folded

“Questions of difference should not be a cause for despair. There are examples from history and our own lives that show how we can connect across difference and stand in solidarity with one another…”

By Shikha Aleya

December 12, 2022

Interview – Srila Roy

A photograph of disability rights activist Srinidhi Raghavan. She is wearing a blue top with a white pattern, black-rimmed spectacles, and a yellow hair-band.

ऐसी जगहों की बहुत कमी है जहां विकलांगता के साथ जी रहे लोग अपने यौनिक अनुभवों या यौनिक जिज्ञासा के बारे में खुलकर बात कर सकें। खास तौर पर विकलांगता के साथ जी रहे युवाओं पर हर वक़्त निगरानी रहती है जिसका मतलब है कि वे यौन अनुभवों से वंचित रह जाते हैं और अपनी यौनिकता को समझ नहीं पाते।

By Shikha Aleya

December 12, 2022

साक्षात्कार – श्रीनिधि राघवन

Photo of a young smiling man taken from an upper angle. He has side-swept black hair and a bear. He is wearing a white shirt, black leather jacket and square spectacles.

“I feel that connection is the survival language of the LGBTQIA+ community. The sense of a common struggle makes way for developing quick yet lasting connections among the community…”

By Shikha Aleya

November 15, 2022

Interview – Prakash

Training with nomadic tribe women & youth

If a community is suffering such severe challenges that are impacting them mentally over generations, over hundreds of years; if the ways of mentally exploiting them are so easy and accessible to all, this means that it is not they who are experiencing mental imbalance but society that is attacking their mental justice and stability.

By Shikha Aleya

September 1, 2022

Interview – Deepa Pawar

Photograph of a woman with long hair in red sari, sitting with a brown dog against a background of bushes with vines and pink azaleas. The woman is resting her chin on one hand and petting the dog with the other.

I’ve essentially thought of movement as a kind of freedom, but one that has the capacity to destabilise you in some way. My most creative moments are when I’m not moving, when I am in fact rooted and still.

By Shikha Aleya

May 3, 2022

Interview – Tishani Doshi

But what has been amazing to witness is how quickly young women in particular, took to the ideas of Why Loiter? and pushed them even further, creating new movements to expand women’s rights to the public, including the right to be out late at night, to stretch the curfew at women’s hostels, to demand extended access to women’s toilets, to public transport etc.

By Shikha Aleya

April 1, 2022

Interview – Sameera Khan

Interview – This is what you bring to the table!

A photograph of a number of multicoloured rainbows against the background of a blue sky.

In this write up, we’d like to share a sense of what emerges from a compilation of these responses. This is based on the thoughts and feelings that come through for those of us here at In Plainspeak who have had the joy of reading the original responses as they came in to us. (Some of the quotations that follow have been slightly edited for flow and to help connect themes.) We know that most things in the realm of art, information and ideas lend themselves to a wide range of inferences and insights depending on the individuals making the inferences.

By Shikha Aleya

March 1, 2022

Interview – This is what you bring to the table!

Interview – Coupledom is a mix of meanings

A photograph of colourful weaves of threads.

Coupledom may or may not be for everyone, and does not mean the same thing to everyone. Importantly, coupledom does not hold the same value or position in our lives, even in the lives of the individuals perceived to be parts of a couple structure.

By Shikha Aleya

February 15, 2022

Interview – Coupledom is a mix of meanings

A photograph of a woman’s face with a mural in the background. The woman has short black hair and a nose piercing. She is smiling.

There may already be another organisation in the community to share resources with but for community-led initiatives, a shared perspective on Safe, Inclusive, Sexuality-Affirming (SISA) spaces is also important. Sometimes when the shared perspective is not there, that becomes a challenge.

By Shikha Aleya

January 3, 2022

Interview: Shruti Arora

Photo of a smiling man who is wearing a blue patterned shirt and standing in front of a brick wall

As we grow older, moral codes, conventions of appropriateness and shame, and the utilitarian and income-focused education we get make us lose that stability. The idea of play to me is about bringing back that ability and comfort into the lives of people so that they can actually play.

By Shikha Aleya

December 1, 2021

Interview – Manak Matiyani