SISA spaces
The Tree on Which Orchids Grow Safe
I’ve never known the answer to childhood questions…
By Lavanya Arora
August 19, 2025
When the Waters Rise, We Stay Rooted
The skills, networks, and resilience we’ve built over years aren’t just stories from the margins; they’re tools the whole system can learn from.
By Satbhan Singh
August 19, 2025
Editorial – Language and Sexuality
The glorious heights of self-actualisation to which some words beckon us, the promises lying within others, it’s all language.
By TARSHI
July 16, 2025
The Machines Are Not All Right: Rethinking (Artificial) Intelligence
Human beings are not brains in jars, but are fundamentally shaped by their perception of and interaction with the worlds around them, through their physical bodies and their sensory encounters.
By Padmini Ray Murray
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
Languages of Love (and Sex)
I soon realised how central language is to our understanding of the world, and how language constitutes the limits and possibilities of our experiences and identities.
By Siddharth Narrain
July 16, 2025
भाषा, एक इच्छा
क्या आपने अपनी माँ के साथ ऐसी बातें की हैं, उनके प्यार, चाहत, इच्छा के बारे में कभी बात हुई है? कैसा था आपका अनुभव? मुझे लगता है कि परंपरा, संस्कृति, इज़्ज़त ने मेरे अंदर एक डर बैठा दिया है और मैं अपनी इच्छा के बारे में बात करने के लिए शब्द और जगह दोनों ही ढूंढती रहती हूँ।
By Anushi Agrawal and Ekta M.
July 16, 2025
क्या चुनना ज़रूरी है? जेंडर बाइनरी की वैधानिक और भाषिक हिंसा पर विचार
कानूनी नियमों और हिंदी भाषा के व्याकरणिक नियमों में एक ऐसी समानता है जो द्विलिंगी ढांचों अर्थात जेंडर बाइनरी में न आने वाले लोगों को बहिष्कृत करती है। कानून की नींव परिभाषाओं पर आधारित होती है।
By Prerna
सहमति की भाषा
हम भाषा पर निर्भर करते हैं। “हाँ” का मतलब इजाज़त देना, और “ना” का मतलब मुकरना। आसान और सरल शब्दों में हमें बताया जाए तो सहमति का मतलब इन्हीं दो अल्फ़ाज़ों से आता है। आसान है, है न?
By Fizza
July 16, 2025
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
Dirty Words, Sacred Nation: On Sexuality, Language, and Indian Morality
What gets silenced today isn’t just what’s obscene – it’s what’s inconvenient. What doesn’t sell. What asks us to take sex seriously or differently.
By Annika Amber
The Language of the Eyes – Speaking Through Signs
Because we also understand and acknowledge the power of a single step forward, we decided to deep dive into working with sign languages for people who are deaf or hard of hearing and including them in the safe abortion rights dialogues.
By Nandini Mazumder, Ayesha Bashir and Suchitra Dalvie
June 17, 2025
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
Words, a blade!
These are their words, their vision,
a blade that left a cut in my veins
By Abdullah Erikat
June 17, 2025
Of Words and Worlds
Words weren’t always needed – we were content in each other’s quiet company, letting stillness speak. It took me years to realise that their home was my first classroom, and love was the language we spoke.
By Taarina Therese Chandiramani
June 17, 2025