[This is a submission for a compilation on stories of #MedicalMisogyny run by Women’s Web. Though it is a real account, I have presented it as fiction.] Trigger Warning: This deals with gaslighting by health care professional and medical negligence and may be triggering to survivors. “Do you want to…

“I feel it is important to write personal narratives about Kashmir. There should be plenty of stories of Kashmir from all points of view. Our enemies are often those whom we don’t know. It has been thirty years; it is only through these stories that we can embrace each other…

“I was born in South India, in a town called Khazipet in the state of Andhra Pradesh.” “I was born into a lower-middle-class family. My parents were college lecturers.” “I was born an untouchable.” These three paragraphs from the Introduction of Sujatha Gilda’s family memoir “Ants Among Elephants. An Untouchable…

[While individual action is important, it is equally important that we hold government and industry accountable for protecting the environment.] “The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it.” …

“Water in a Broken Pot” is the memoir of Yogesh Maitreya, who is a poet, writer, translator and the founder of Panter’s Paw Publications, which is devoted to publishing literature by Dalit- Bahujan writers. The book chronicles his experiences of pain, loneliness, depravation, alienation, and the growing political consciousness of…

[First published in Women’s Web] When an actress described women as “lazy” because they choose not to have careers and insist on only considering prospective grooms who earn a lot, many jumped to her defence. Many men (and women) shared stories about how “choosy” women have now become. One wrote…

[First published in Women’s Web] I was sexually harassed as a teenager in my apartment complex while playing Holi, and the incident left me so scarred, I never played Holi again. When I shared the story of my harassment on social media, several things happened. People known and unknown reached…

[First published in Women’s Web on March 7, 2023] Trigger Warning: Description of sexual harassment which may be triggering for survivors. When I was a young child growing up in a small mining colony in Jharkhand, Holi was fun. We kids would run around the colony with our pichkaris, ambushing…

[First published on Feb 21 in Women’s Web] Last week, Spain became the first country in Europe to pass a legislation that grants paid medical leave to women suffering from severe period pain. The legislation allows workers to take off as much time as they need, provided a doctor approves…