SISA spaces

Interview – Prakash
Photo of a young smiling man taken from an upper angle. He has side-swept black hair and a bear. He is wearing a white shirt, black leather jacket and square spectacles.
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 – Prakash
Building Safe Spaces In Threatening Places
A white window on a grey wall opening up to a cobblestone street
Building Safe Spaces In Threatening Places

If sharing was a proverbial coin at the rehabilitation facility, connections were one side of it, and sexuality was the other. Men and women were not allowed to touch one another – no handshakes or hugs or an eager slap on the back.

By Trijita
November 15, 2022
Building Safe Spaces In Threatening Places
Walks, Braids, Miranda, and Memories
grey concrete surface with patterns of swirls
Walks, Braids, Miranda, and Memories

This was the time we were growing up, learning new things, reading new books and discovering something new almost every day, and this all-women space provided an opportunity to do that without requiring any pretence or catering to the male gaze.

By Ambica Naithani
November 15, 2022
Walks, Braids, Miranda, and Memories
The many hues of connections
A photograph of a mosaic pattern in hues of red and one streak of green. At the centre of the pattern is a circle surrounded by a semi circle.
The many hues of connections

Connection, to my mind, is one of those profoundly entrenched concepts manifesting itself throughout our lives. It is difficult to let go of.

By Adsa Fatima
October 17, 2022
The many hues of connections
Happily Ever After: Review of Good Luck to You, Leo Grande
Daryl McCormack and Emma Thompson in Good Luck To You, Leo Grande - a movie about an older woman's sexual exploration
Happily Ever After: Review of Good Luck to You, Leo Grande

This film reminds us of the power of connections in finding pleasure, joy, confidence and healing.
By ElsaMarie D'Silva
October 17, 2022
Happily Ever After: Review of Good Luck to You, Leo Grande
So what if I’m my own voyeur? — Connections and Disconnections with Desire(s)
Orange flames rising over a black background
So what if I’m my own voyeur? — Connections and Disconnections with Desire(s)

Funnily enough, porn played a massive role in helping me articulate my queerness (I am pansexual) and my even queerer desires.
By Ankita Dhar Karmakar
October 17, 2022
So what if I’m my own voyeur? — Connections and Disconnections with Desire(s)
Editorial – Mental Health and Sexuality
A close-up photograph of a daisy
Editorial – Mental Health and Sexuality

Mental health, much like physical health, is a state of wellbeing and not just the absence of disease or infirmity….
By TARSHI
September 19, 2022
Editorial – Mental Health and Sexuality
Where do we begin?
An office space with rows of desks. At the forefront are two desks with monitors, chairs and desk lamps. There are knick-knacks like a wooden statue of a cat, plan, a bottle containing amber-coloured liquid and cables.
Where do we begin?

The connection between mental and emotional wellbeing and stigmatised identities is perhaps most easily understood and therefore a good entry…
By Shikha Aleya
September 19, 2022
Where do we begin?
The Chronicles of the Changing Room: Reclaiming the Cubicle of Doom
A row Multicoloured scarves or dupattas tied in a knot and hanging from a bar.
The Chronicles of the Changing Room: Reclaiming the Cubicle of Doom

I pride myself on being a fast learner. Yet it took me an embarrassingly long time to realise that shopping,…
By Sanskriti Bhardwaj
September 19, 2022
The Chronicles of the Changing Room: Reclaiming the Cubicle of Doom
This is how we do it
An abstract illustration of multi-coloured swirling patterns
This is how we do it

We need to recognise that mental health stressors that queer people face are not because something is inherently wrong with them.
By Shruti Chakravarty
September 1, 2022
This is how we do it
Nightmares of Being Chased by an Angry Mob
An abstract illustration of swirling patterns and splotches of mustard yellow, black, pale blue, deep orange and pale crimson. The patterns look like galaxies.
Nightmares of Being Chased by an Angry Mob

My foray of offering support in both the fields of sexual wellness and mental health was unplanned to say the…
By Pooja Priyamvada
September 1, 2022
Nightmares of Being Chased by an Angry Mob
Of Identity and Belongings: The Gatekeeping within Queer Spaces
A close-up of chainmesh fencing.
Of Identity and Belongings: The Gatekeeping within Queer Spaces

I went to a girls’ high school and for somebody who had spent the last ten years in a co-ed…
By Shubhangi
September 1, 2022
Of Identity and Belongings: The Gatekeeping within Queer Spaces
With Love: A Special Issue on Sexuality, Mental Health, Wellbeing, and Self-care
An illustration of the title of the article with a beige background. There are oblong-shaped blobs in peach and sap green on the upper left corner and the lower right corner. At the centre is the logo of TARSHI followed by three verticle rows of squiggly lines and the text that reads "In Plainspeak: Sexuality, mental health, wellbeing and self-care"
With Love: A Special Issue on Sexuality, Mental Health, Wellbeing, and Self-care

The intricate connections between sexuality, mental health, wellbeing, and self-care have been some of the core themes that In Plainspeak…
By TARSHI
June 15, 2022
With Love: A Special Issue on Sexuality, Mental Health, Wellbeing, and Self-care
Editorial – Movement and Sexuality
An abstract photo of blurred blue and white vertical lines that are spanning outwards
Editorial – Movement and Sexuality

This issue of In Plainspeak while inviting us to embrace the joys and pleasure in movement, also questions the ways in which movements are facilitated or obstructed, visibilised or invisibilised, and the spaces that we must envision to find freedom in/to movement.
By TARSHI
May 19, 2022
Editorial – Movement and Sexuality
Issue in Focus
An abstract image of waves.
Issue in Focus

Expanding contexts give the word ‘movement’ different meanings and value. Physical, conceptual, technological, relationship, emotional, mental, power, knowledge, ability, access, may be amongst the contexts immediately identified.

By Shikha Aleya
May 3, 2022
Issue in Focus
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