community

Locating the ‘Nagar’ in ‘Nagarkirtan’: Identifying the feeling of socio-sexual rootlessness in the Transgender community
Poster of the movie Nagarkirtan. A woman with short hair is leaning her chin on the shoulders of a man who is playing a flute. The name of the movie is written in Bengali, followed by its translation in English that reads “The Eunuch and The Flute Player”. Below it is the text that reads, “A Film by Kaushik Ganguly”, following which is a list of awards won by the movie at the 2018 National Awards.

The plot of the movie narrates the tale of the love that grows between two people who are struggling to survive in a world of rootlessness and are continuing to make a cosy home for themselves. The love between Madhu, who works as a food delivery boy, and Puti, who survives by singing at traffic signals, blossoms while they cross paths everyday at the traffic signal and the look that they exchange appears to us as if each of them is trying to find a home in the other.

By Ria Basu
April 18, 2022
Locating the ‘Nagar’ in ‘Nagarkirtan’: Identifying the feeling of socio-sexual rootlessness in the Transgender community
Kink and Friendship
A red and white carnival eye mask.

My sexual desires may not be what certain people called ‘normal’ and I could not share this with my so called friends as I thought they would consider me weird. Surprisingly a woman in my hometown introduced me to the world of Kink. She was a regular housewife and with her for the first time I got to know what I actually needed and wanted and it went on for a good amount of time till I moved out of that place for many reasons.

By Sig
May 16, 2016
Kink and Friendship
Interview: Shruti Arora
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
Interview: Pramada Menon: Why do families occupy so much of our headspace?
Picture of feminist activist Pramada Menon, she ihas short hair and is wearing a maroon kurta, black waistcoat and a red dupatta

Pramada Menon is a queer feminist activist who ponders about all matters she thinks are complex. When not pondering and…

By Radhika Chandiramani
May 1, 2015
Interview: Pramada Menon: Why do families occupy so much of our headspace?
Interview – Raj Mariwala
A photograph of MHI director Raj Mariwala; she is playing with a grey-brown dog, squatting in grass.

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
January 3, 2023
Interview – Raj Mariwala
Interview – Raj Mariwala
A photograph of MHI director Raj Mariwala; she is playing with a grey-brown dog, squatting in grass.

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
July 5, 2021
Interview – Raj Mariwala
How much support is enough?
A photograph of two individual’s hands, from their forearms. One of the individuals is clasping the others’ hand in theirs.

In the middle of this pandemic, can one seek sexual support in the form of a hook up with one’s best friend, ‘just because’? Is it redefining boundaries, is it sympathy sex, is it simple indulgence, or is it something that one or both might later resent?

By Asmi
November 2, 2020
How much support is enough?
How Do You Battle AIDS if No One Talks About Sex? KP’s Transgenders Speak Out
Photo of four transgender people.

In Peshawar alone, the community consists of over 500 transgenders. At least 20 per cent of these have AIDS. Their risk of contracting AIDS is higher, since 59 per cent of khawaja saras report to have at least one sexually transmitted infection.

By Curated Content
April 18, 2016
How Do You Battle AIDS if No One Talks About Sex? KP’s Transgenders Speak Out
Editorial: Sexuality and Self-care
A photograph of a rocky landscape with a tabby cat sitting atop a grey rock, lined with green-brown grass, licking itself.

Continuing with our theme of self-care being about sustaining ourselves, our work, our movements, keeping the fires lit, and relating with love to ourselves, in our mid-month issue we bring you more articles looking at self-care from different perspectives – individual, queer, activist, collective, organisational, not necessarily separated, or in this order, of course.

By TARSHI
July 19, 2021
Editorial: Sexuality and Self-care
Editorial: Fandom and Sexuality
A colourful pattern of distorted concentric circles

Members of a fandom are not just passive consumers but active co-creators who imagine and build new worlds around their objects of adoration. Fandom communities offer fans the freedom of being able to imagine, create and share all sorts of scenarios, including romantic, erotic and sexual ones.

By TARSHI
November 15, 2021
Editorial: Fandom and Sexuality
Editorial: Data and Sexuality
A digital illustration of networks, with many white lines criss-crossing, intersecting, and branching out across a grey-blue background. Wherever the lines intersect in the web of networks is a small white dot.

While we are struggling with the vicissitudes brought on by the pandemic we are also forced to spend more time online, to look for resources in terms of health care or caregivers, to reach out to people and build a communities of care, to take a break, or to try and hook-up online for a while.

By TARSHI
May 15, 2021
Editorial: Data and Sexuality
Editorial – Sexuality and SISA Spaces
Close-up of a sunflower field and the sun rising over hills in the background.

We envision SISA spaces as non-judgmental, inclusive, rights-based and affirming spaces wherein people’s sexuality, their identities, wellbeing, choices, desires and pleasure are respected.

By TARSHI
January 3, 2022
Editorial – Sexuality and SISA Spaces
Developing an Ethics of Care
A design of two arms outstretched, one holding out the Earth in its palm and the other reaching towards it.

Ethics of Care offers a normative paradigm that goes beyond the neat distinctions of morally guided ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ actions to incorporate social responsibility, wherein we learn how to shape our responses on the basis of the needs of a community’s members.

By Swarna Jain
November 16, 2020
Developing an Ethics of Care
Dear Diary: The radically feminist creative journalling practice that nobody talks about
A photograph of a person's arm and hand. The background of a couch with a blue duvet is blurred, and the focus is on the person's hands, with brown nail-paint, and a blue pen in their hands. They are writing in a spiral bound notebook. Beside them is a black cup.

My journal has many entries that are speculative and fantastic. Writing about the mundane leads me to question the way the world operates and from there I frog-leap into a world of ideas where I imagine a radically different way of being. In my journal, I imagine a politics of care, community, and compassion. I become grand, valuable, and unstoppable, even in a world where I am sometimes made to feel small.

By Sheena D'Lima
July 5, 2021
Dear Diary: The radically feminist creative journalling practice that nobody talks about
Community And Sexuality: Learning A Politics Of Unbelonging

My politics demanded an alignment with my life, and as my personal life choices were almost always against the norms of society, this was the default option. As one moved away and tried to make communities of choice, however, there were newer lessons to be learnt.

By Chayanika Shah
January 2, 2020
Community And Sexuality: Learning A Politics Of Unbelonging
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