Sexuality
Interview – Jyotsna Siddharth
Our bodies are the vessels through which we feel, emote, work or navigate our societies and the world at large. Our bodies are the real, live archive of everything we have experienced and they have borne the consequences of our social conditioning and decisions.
By Shikha Aleya
June 16, 2023
Interview – Jasmine George
Jasmine George is a TEDx speaker, lawyer, and a sexual and reproductive health advocate from India. She is the founder of Hidden Pockets and currently curates conversations around sexuality and other fields. She is passionate about using alternative means in law and technology to explore sexuality
By Shikha Aleya
December 2, 2019
Interview – Deepa Pawar
Deepa Pawar is the Managing Trustee & Founder Director of Anubhuti Trust, and is well-known for her work with NT-DNT…
By Shikha Aleya
September 1, 2022
Interview – Daniel Mendonca
Shikha Aleya interviews Daniel Mendonca who identifies as an intersex person and is a gender rights activist who has engaged with diverse groups of people in India and other countries, to expand awareness, build empathy and foster an environment that is accepting of diversity.
By Shikha Aleya
October 15, 2019
Interview – Abha Khetarpal
Abha Khetarpal is a disability rights activist and self-advocate, writer, motivational speaker, and President of Cross the Hurdles, a resource…
By Shikha Aleya
May 1, 2020
Interview – #covid19 and conversations online: Listening in
We are plugged in to all kinds of data from a variety of sources, through technology, and even a window view of this space is like stepping into a global COVID control data centre. We are standing up to be counted, to be seen, to do, to contribute, to advocate, to remind, to rectify and restore, to strengthen a growing network of support and response to crisis on a scale we have neither been able to process or measure.
By Shikha Aleya
Interview with ‘Lipstick Under My Burkha’ Filmmaker Alankrita Shrivastava
Alankrita Shrivastava made her directorial debut with the film ‘Turning 30!!!’ (2011) and has been committed to telling stories about women from a woman’s perspective. Her second and most recent film ‘Lipstick Under My Burkha’ (2016) has received international recognition and is slated to release in India in early 2017.
By Anjora Sarangi
Interview : Arvind Narrain
JG: As a founder member of The Alternative Law Forum (ALF) you have engaged with conventional law and at the…
By Jasmine George
June 1, 2014
Interview – We Have Questions!
There are times when we bend the rules and draw on the walls. This is one of those times. We listened in on some of the chatter online on the subject of consent and we ended up with some questions.
By Shikha Aleya
March 17, 2025
Interview – This is what you bring to the table!
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 – Suchitra Dalvie
Getting to know who I really am has been a game changer. Prejudice, anger, control and violence all emerge from fear.
By Shikha Aleya
May 16, 2024
Interview – Srila Roy
“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 – Prarthana Prasad
Entertainment should aim to inspire, comfort, reflect and express. Even if something violent earns big at the box office, it doesn’t justify its creation.
By Shikha Aleya
February 15, 2024
Interview – Prakash
“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 – Parmesh Shahani
The larger question is, who gets to bring all of themselves to the workplace, and who is either not allowed, or feels scared, or is bullied for doing so?
By Shikha Aleya
September 18, 2024