relationships
Lootera: The Thief Who Stole My Heart
It is rare to show with such simplicity and depth, the undoing of a robber as he falls in love with the subject of his robbery. Lootera reinforces the belief in love’s gentleness which can disarm all the trappings of normative masculinity that society commands.
By Pronita Tripathi
April 17, 2025
Looking For Someone To Talk To
I would say that growing up in a small village would make it difficult to find love or companionship, but I have since moved to a city and found that it was difficult to find love there, too. It did not stop me from trying, though.
By Wesley D'Souza
April 1, 2022
Lockdown Logs
Why does the gap feel so wide no matter how much I explain, again and again, that I do not mean to hurt him… hurt any of them? I feel torn… but Amma and Appa need my help at home. Lockdown has been so damn hard.
By Kaveri
April 18, 2024
March 17, 2023
La esquina de mi corazón
To be politically queer in a new language is an intoxication of all senses, revelation, outrageous freedom.
By Cat D
July 16, 2025
Kun Faya Kun: Embodying Non-Conformity
For a queer person, or for someone who remains single by choice, everyday existence requires strength and will. That is the embodiment of kun faya kun as a personal philosophy: to manifest the person you want to be through sheer will.
By Ghausia Rashid Salam
February 1, 2021
Kink and Friendship
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
Keep it Light
I tell them to laugh freely but question as much too. This gives them a sense of sheer relief to be able to ask, talk, question, because, even if it is ‘really bad’, after all, it’s being said in ‘lightness, is it not?
By Gunjan Sharma
May 17, 2023
Jasmine Stains
My hair smells like jasmine / From the wedding I went to last night / When I tethered my untameable hair with flowers,
By Malini Gopalakrishnan
August 1, 2018
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
Issue In Focus: Baboochamuffins and Other Musings
Why are certain privileges only afforded to couples? Why can we not share them with others outside of a romantic or sexual paradigm? Why is intimacy seen as being the purview of lovers? In actual fact, we may often share a greater intimacy with our friends than we do with our lovers.
By Radhika Chandiramani
Issue in focus
Companions take many forms. Using the word very loosely here, a companion is anyone the self is connected to, anywhere, at any point in time, from a family member, to a stranger on a train.
By Shikha Aleya
November 15, 2022
Invisible Women
I recently watched North Country on Netflix, a movie based on a true story of a woman’s fight for equality at the workplace. It is based on the case, Jenson vs Eveleth Mines, in the United States in which Lois Jenson, fought for the right to work as a miner, and the right to work free of sexual harassment. She won the landmark 1984 lawsuit, which was the first class-action lawsuit on sexual harassment at the workplace in the United States and resulted in companies/organisations having to introduce sexual harassment policies at the workplace.
By ElsaMarie D'Silva
May 15, 2021
Interview: Shruti Arora
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: Sharanya Manivannan
If you are true to yourself, and attuned to your emotions and needs, you’ll invariably find that even a core belief (such as: not believing in the institution of marriage) is complicated by what the lived experience of that means (not only discriminatory experiences, but also intimate ones).
By Shikha Aleya
February 1, 2021