The I Column
The Absence of a Queer ‘Mother Tongue’
Many queer Indians who converse largely in their respective regional languages find it difficult to put a name to their queer identity in their ‘mother tongue’.
By Anonymous
May 1, 2018
My First Memories of Dabbling into online BDSM still Empower me after more than a Decade
If not for these memories, my exploration of sexuality would perhaps have stopped a few years ago, when I was single for a long time and didn’t know if I could find someone like me.
By Asmi
Trauma, the Body & Memory
In addition to healing from sexual trauma, which took a lot of work, the most joyful part of this journey has been a discovery of my own sexuality.
April 2, 2018
Exposed Book Wall: The Night Train at Deoli and Other Tales of Delusional Love
Coming back to finding a utopic home within the narratives from The Night Train at Deoli, the book wasn’t necessarily an escape from what constituted the material home, but rather an assurance that love can have plural possibilities, and so can what comes to be ‘home’.
By Swati Vijaya
Acceptance, Agency, and A Womens’ Hostel
In a way, Mrs Chatterjee’s worst fears had been confirmed. The hostel was indeed dangerous – not because of “raging hormones”, but because wewere constantly initiating discussions and circumstances which challenged the patriarchal status quo.
By Anonymous
March 5, 2018
The Sisterhood of Sexuality
“Order me one too,” a friend said as I secretly purchased a vibrator online during a class so boring, I…
By Aakriti
February 1, 2018
I COLUMN : FICTION AND SEXUALITY
Her eyes are open now, she looks at him. There is sadness there. “What my love? What happened?” he asks….
By Shikha Aleya
January 2, 2018
TALKING ABOUT GENDER AND SEXUALITY AS A FEMINIST MOTHER: IT ONLY GETS MORE COMPLICATED
“Mamma, look, that’s a boy giraffe, I can see his penis,” exclaims my four-year-old daughter in delight at her discovery…
By Shilpa Phadke
‘From Son to Father’
Dear Dad, There are times when I find writing a largely unproductive and tiresome exercise. For much of what is…
By Sahil Sood
December 4, 2017
The Gifts of Time
Even negotiations related to the use of contraception or types of sexual acts in consensual relationships become difficult for a young girl because of her fear of displeasing her partner. But if one is fortunate, time helps us acquire some sets of skills and the language to speak up against violence and enforce decisions surrounding one’s sexual and social life.
By Ramya Anand
November 1, 2017
F*** me, I am Dalit
I read The Failed Radical Possibilities of Queerness in India more than a year ago and it still makes me…
By Akhil Kang
October 3, 2017
I Column : Fiction and Sexuality
What is fiction? Is it born of reality? Or does it birth reality, reflecting it back at me until I see the things I do not see? Until I find the person that is me? Until I dance my horse dance under moon, under stars, in a room full of people who like horse dancing just as much as they like the swirly skirt and the pot-bellied person doing the Bhangra.
By Shikha Aleya
September 1, 2017
Striving to get information about my body
As a 17 year old who grew up in a relatively liberal Indian household, I should probably be proud of…
By Zoya Achanta
August 16, 2017
The Paradox of Principles
I do not feel the need to fight the feminist war within these spaces all the time, now that it has become my home. I have come to terms with the idea that certain contradictions can co-exist peacefully like the yin and yang. But still, sometimes, my mind is roiled in conflict, with me cautiously trying to balance my two identities – the feminist and the army officer’s wife. Nevertheless, I am unwilling to give up one for the other (even if I might be perceived as being less of one of them). So I continue to be an individual with two seeming contradictions: a feminist army-officer’s-wife!
By Ramya Anand
July 1, 2017
Pyaar Online: Cruising Online for Love
Generations come and go but the quest for love remains eternal. In the early 2000s, most of us millennials were…
By Divya Swaminathan
June 1, 2017