Steering Through Singlehood
I am 27 now and marriage is the most brought-up topic of conversation by my parents and relatives. Now, choosing or wanting to stay single is inversely proportional to my reputation, respect, and worthiness.
BLOSSOMING INTO A GARDEN: SPIRITUALITY, SEXUALITY AND ALL-CONSUMING QUEER LOVE IN ‘PUU’
Puu, an episodic comic (consisting of 92 serialised episodes) created in 2016 by Nabigal-Nayagam Haider Ali – going by Nabi online – is woven together with vast, expansive threads of similar intense spiritual moments and reflections on devotion, faith, and love.
Video: Run When Mom Calls | Sumukhi Suresh | Don’t Tell Amma
Stand-up comedian Sumukhi Suresh’s video I Run When my Mom Calls, part of her performance Don’t Tell Amma, is a boldly humorous reminder of lines drawn around us by tradition. She uses the figure of Amma (mother) to symbolise socio-cultural attitudes towards sex, particularly outside of marriage. With an air of resigned amusement, Sumukhi recounts…
Brushstrokes: 9 Simple Ways to Become the Perfect Sanskari Woman
In many societies, women are assigned the role of ‘protecting’ or upholding tradition and culture. Their movements, behaviour and conversations are policed by their communities in an effort to ensure that women fulfil the often unattainable goal of being unwavering bastions of tradition. Perplexingly, the traditional attributes that are so romanticized by the community at…
Reframing Family History
Often when we speak of families and family history, we talk genetics, traditions and inheritance of all kinds. Somehow our relationship by blood or otherwise to a clan is supposed to help us identify our place in the universe. So there's family medical history, family culture, family traditions of food and career. But sexuality? A family history that focuses on sexuality? What would that even mean?