romance

I never liked your beanie
A light-grey surface with faded and yellowed postcards and papers, A small pile of papers and books is tied with string. There is a black fountain pen and an ink bottle is out of focus in one corner.

I only ever read your letters
to learn what patterns to avoid
in future relationships.

By Hritvika Lakhera
May 4, 2023
I never liked your beanie
Love belongs to me too
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I see people and places,
Couples and crushes
I hear giggles and whispers.
These are the secrets untold to me.

By Gayathri
March 1, 2023
Love belongs to me too
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
Public Sex and the Police in Urban Spaces
A photo of heterosexual couple sitting cross-legged on a rampart beside the sea. The man is wearing a blue shirt and there are shopping bags beside him. Beside him, only the mid-length hair of the woman can be seen. In the horizon is the city skyline of Mumbai with skyscrapers and other buildings at golden hour.

While sex workers face repeated harassment by the police, many young couples face threats in a one-off incident if the police finds them with their partner/lover. They may face police surveillance of expressions of intimacy and affection in public.

By Shruti Arora
April 1, 2022
Public Sex and the Police in Urban Spaces
Editorial – Sexuality and Coupledom
A colourful mosaic of human limbs and random geometric shapes

If we are to reimagine coupledom and sexuality, we need to expand and challenge our ideas about togetherness, romance, love, intimacy, desire, sex, attachment, and so on.

By TARSHI
February 15, 2022
Editorial – Sexuality and Coupledom
What Polyamory is and what it could be
A multi-coloured kite with multiple tails flying against a deep blue sky

Practicing polyamory comes with the struggle of breaking down value systems and non-acceptance that may lead to ostracism not only from the heterosexual world but also from the queer and trans community. Claiming oneself as queer depends not only on how one identifies, but also, in society’s eyes, on who one’s partner is; being single does not qualify and neither does being polyamorous as the latter is considered ‘non-serious’.

By Abhiti Gupta
February 15, 2022
What Polyamory is and what it could be
On the Sustainability of (Non) Romance
A photograph featuring two women with their backs to the camera and their arms entwined, looking at a blurred scenery of a neighbourhood.

Contemporary and predominant imaginations of intimacy focus primarily on a sex-centric (romance-centric?) model which assumes that sexual desire exists and holds the same value for every person and every relationship regardless of their subjective positions. Sexual intent and desire are often the cruces of how relational aspects such as intimacy are socially constructed.

By Fariha Sameen
February 15, 2022
On the Sustainability of (Non) Romance
The Loves of Others
A red and white illustration of a spaghetti dish placed upon a chequered tablecloth. Strands of spaghetti are being slurped by two invisible entities. On the top left is a circle sticker with black background and a gold border. The sticker has the text “TNI CLASSIC” in a red and yellow top-to-bottom gradient colour.

Both rejections and affirmations of the couple are skewered on this doubleness: It is the fullest expression of love and proximity available to us, and it bears all the insufficiencies of present social relations. Monogamous romantic commitment, like infallible lifelong attraction to only men or only women, is surely a minority tendency expediently elevated to a general social principle.

By Curated Content
February 15, 2022
The Loves of Others
Brushstrokes: Why Being Asexual Doesn’t Mean I’m ‘Broken’
Asexual not Broken

There are a lot of prejudices and misconceptions about asexual people. This comic on Everyday Feminism sensitises us to asexuality through a deeply felt real-life story of finding love as an asexual person.

By Curated Content
February 1, 2022
Brushstrokes: Why Being Asexual Doesn’t Mean I’m ‘Broken’
Interview – Manak Matiyani
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
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
For the Joy of it
An illustration of a person’s face and neck in drab shades. They seem to be in great agony: there are scars and marks on the face, and the inside of the mouth as well as the neck are sketched in a web of overlapping vertical lines.

Of course, I knew I wasn’t the only person in the world writing about Sherlock Holmes. I, however, thought I was the only one in the world writing about them like that. You know.
Romantically.

By Saswati
November 1, 2021
For the Joy of it
Tinderization of Feeling
Image of two dolls swaying their legs and arms. The doll on the left has long hair and is wearing a red coloured head scarf on its head and a white sweater and black pants. The doll also has makeup on its face. The doll on the rights has short hair and is wearing a white sweater with grey pants. The doll has a black woolen scarf around its neck

To be without intricacies is to be without emotional boundaries, to disregard whoever whenever. Besties save you from your shit. They are your heart, and they transcend any efficiency that the Tinderization Bestie Robot attempts to offer you in its binary fantasy.

By Curated Content
April 19, 2021
Tinderization of Feeling
Being Comfortable in My Skin

I felt naked in front of everyone when I first came out, and I can’t stress enough how much my male privilege has helped me out here. I don’t even know if people found it serious enough to consider it my identity instead of ‘a mere sexual preference’ or ‘a phase’ (always a classic dismissal).

By Gokul KP
April 5, 2021
Being Comfortable in My Skin
Circle of Trust
Poster of the Netflix series ‘The Bold Type’ Three girls can be seen standing confidently. On top of the poster, the tile ‘Bold Type is written in purple colour

None of these characters is perfect but in their imperfections we can learn more about body positivity, gender sensitivity, privilege, consent, unconscious and implicit bias, sexuality, masculinity, their intersections with class, religion, race, age, and more.

By ElsaMarie D'Silva
April 5, 2021
Circle of Trust
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