Voices
Jasmine Stains
Desire is a man’s turf, right up there with moustaches and Adam’s apples / I’m the apple, I am the snake, I am Eve / I am the vibrator nestled between flimsy, cheap lace underwear / I am the shame, of saying I came
By Malini Gopalakrishnan
January 2, 2019
I’m a Fennel for Now
“I’m afraid because I bring to bed more than just one soul of a scared conflicted boy. I’m bringing to bed a whole army that not only runs the streets within me but also spills out over my body and the body of the boy next to me.”
By Abdullah Erikat
September 4, 2018
Is This The Best A Man Can Be?
In a patriarchal society, masculinities manifest or show-up as a very particular set of behaviours such as being controlling and dominating, often in violent ways. In fact, the root of masculinities in a patriarchal society emphasises practicing this violence and control.
By Saswati Chatterjee and Pauline Gomes
October 1, 2019
Is POCSO Failing Adolescent Sexuality?
Age of consent deems sexual activity with persons below the set age as statutory rape, which POCSO has set at 18 years. However, the law in practice faces some unintended consequences, in relation to who it prosecutes and their ages.
By Mrinalini and Udita
September 1, 2020
Intersections between Mental Health and Human Rights: The case of transwomen and transmen in Malaysia
Last week, I was at The Third International Conference on Human Rights and Peace and Conflict in Southeast Asia organised…
By Vizla Kumaresan
India’s Daughter: When Men Come Together, But Women Stand Divided
Two weeks before India’s Daughter made it to the headlines, I came across this new pledge for Delhi school kids,…
By Shweta Krishnan
In Transit
I could have called it transformation instead of transitioning. But it became clear to me that transitioning does not necessarily imply a caterpillar-butterfly story but that it means a gradual acceptance of the self (and the self is ever-transitioning); of being comfortable in your own skin (even if it means shedding skin); of perfecting your act (even if it means learning a few new things).
By Rishit Wishit
September 17, 2018
In the Name of the Mother….
A basic analysis of the most powerful swear words reveals that the vast majority are somehow related to sex (as in the act) or sexuality.
By Suchitra Dalvie
May 1, 2018
In Search of Ochin Pakhi
The aim of this piece is to bring to light the inherent queerness marking Baul folk music in Bengali, an oral undocumented spiritual expression that transcends heterosexual impositions and classism.
By Taniya Basu
June 17, 2025
In conversation with Sheema Kermani
Sheema Kermani is a cultural activist, theatre practitioner, theatre director and a known Pakistani exponent of Indian classical dance. She had studied Bharatanatyam…
By TARSHI
July 1, 2014
Illegally Adult: The Strange Case of Alisha Major
She was 17 when she was rescued from a dance bar. Now she’s 18 and she wants to go back. As an adult. And dance again. That’s what Alisha wrote in a letter to the Child Welfare Committee.
Alisha’s letter may be one of a kind. It doesn’t matter. It may even be a scam of sorts, in that she was pushed to write it. Doesn’t matter. What’s interesting is the jumble that it throws up, if you look at her choices through eyes that are not hers.
By Bishakha Datta
June 17, 2016
ILLEGALLY ADULT: THE STRANGE CASE OF ALISHA MAJOR
She was 17 when she was rescued from a dance bar. Now she’s 18 and she wants to go back. As an adult. And…
By Bishakha Datta
January 2, 2018
If Mountains Can Move …
Language itself is being plugged as a resource, to be shared with those who share similar politics, or if not, at least to move them along in that direction. And people who speak, think, love and live differently are targeted as “the other”.
By Nandini Rao
June 17, 2025
I Wish I May, I Wish I Might Have the Wish, I Wish Tonight
While we were researching women’s access to public space in Mumbai under the aegis of the Gender and Space Project,…
By Shilpa Phadke
August 15, 2015
I will meet you post quarantine
A kiss for the side of your neck One for the last of your back For a year that we…
By Aishwarya Shrivastav
December 1, 2021