Shikha Aleya

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
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?
What does it mean to extend acceptance and support in one of life’s most crucial areas – the workspace? How do we unpack the concept of positive discrimination and affirmative action at the level of the organisation.
By Shikha Aleya
September 19, 2022
Where do we begin?
Interview – Deepa Pawar
Training with nomadic tribe women & youth
Interview – Deepa Pawar
If a community is suffering such severe challenges that are impacting them mentally over generations, over hundreds of years; if the ways of mentally exploiting them are so easy and accessible to all, this means that it is not they who are experiencing mental imbalance but society that is attacking their mental justice and stability.
By Shikha Aleya
September 1, 2022
Interview – Deepa Pawar
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
Interview – Tishani Doshi
Photograph of a woman with long hair in red sari, sitting with a brown dog against a background of bushes with vines and pink azaleas. The woman is resting her chin on one hand and petting the dog with the other.
Interview – Tishani Doshi

I’ve essentially thought of movement as a kind of freedom, but one that has the capacity to destabilise you in some way. My most creative moments are when I’m not moving, when I am in fact rooted and still.

By Shikha Aleya
May 3, 2022
Interview – Tishani Doshi
Interview – Sameera Khan
Photo of Sameera Khan. She has long black hair and is standing in a garden. She is wearing a black kurta, a deep emerald dupatta and a black necklace.
Interview – Sameera Khan

But what has been amazing to witness is how quickly young women in particular, took to the ideas of Why Loiter? and pushed them even further, creating new movements to expand women’s rights to the public, including the right to be out late at night, to stretch the curfew at women’s hostels, to demand extended access to women’s toilets, to public transport etc.
By Shikha Aleya
April 1, 2022
Interview – Sameera Khan
Interview – This is what you bring to the table!
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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 – This is what you bring to the table!
Interview – Coupledom is a mix of meanings
A photograph of colourful weaves of threads.
Interview – Coupledom is a mix of meanings

Coupledom may or may not be for everyone, and does not mean the same thing to everyone. Importantly, coupledom does not hold the same value or position in our lives, even in the lives of the individuals perceived to be parts of a couple structure.
By Shikha Aleya
February 15, 2022
Interview – Coupledom is a mix of meanings
Interview: Shruti Arora
A photograph of a woman’s face with a mural in the background. The woman has short black hair and a nose piercing. She is smiling.
Interview: Shruti Arora

There may already be another organisation in the community to share resources with but for community-led initiatives, a shared perspective on Safe, Inclusive, Sexuality-Affirming (SISA) spaces is also important. Sometimes when the shared perspective is not there, that becomes a challenge.
By Shikha Aleya
January 3, 2022
Interview: Shruti Arora
Interview – Manak Matiyani
Photo of a smiling man who is wearing a blue patterned shirt and standing in front of a brick wall
Interview – Manak Matiyani

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
Interview – Sadhana Chathurvedula and Nirupama V
Interview – Sadhana Chathurvedula and Nirupama V

Sadhana Chathurvedula and Nirupama V have been exploring the phenomenon of Hallyu, the popularity and fan following of Korean entertainment…
By Shikha Aleya
November 1, 2021
Interview – Sadhana Chathurvedula and Nirupama V
Interview: Maya Sharma
Interview: Maya Sharma

In this interview with Shikha Aleya, Maya speaks with a deep knowledge of ground realities about the increasing informalisation of labour and its implications for gender and sexuality, and about what labour rights and inclusion mean in real terms.
By Shikha Aleya
October 4, 2021
Interview: Maya Sharma
Interview – Rituparna Borah
Interview – Rituparna Borah

Rituparna Borah is co-founder and co-director at Nazariya: A Queer Feminist Resource Group based in Delhi. Currently a fellow of…
By Shikha Aleya
September 1, 2021
Interview – Rituparna Borah
Interview – Srinidhi Raghavan
A photograph of disability rights activist Srinidhi Raghavan. She is wearing a blue top with a white pattern, black-rimmed spectacles, and a yellow hair-band.
Interview – Srinidhi Raghavan

Disabled people might not have many spaces where they can speak openly about their sexual experiences or even sexual curiosity. There is a heavy monitoring of disabled young people especially, and this can mean that exploration, which is often how many of us discover sexuality, can be limited. Moreover, since the experiences of disabled people are not seen in popular media such as films, we can (and probably do) imagine we will have the same or similar experiences as non-disabled people  – which is often not possible.
By Shikha Aleya
August 2, 2021
Interview – Srinidhi Raghavan
Interview – Raj Mariwala
A photograph of MHI director Raj Mariwala; she is playing with a grey-brown dog, squatting in grass.
Interview – Raj Mariwala

Self-care is influenced by the environment we inhabit, the way we relate to others, the way we negotiate with other living beings or structures. Self-care is also interlinked with other types of care – whether that is in community resources, psychosocial support, engagement with medical and health care institutions, and of course in collective agency and solidarity.
By Shikha Aleya
July 5, 2021
Interview – Raj Mariwala
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