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Personal Stories
Stars In My Eyes ft. Meena Kumari
6 people tell us why the Tragedy Queen mattered to them on her birthday!
Forbidden Cookies Taste Sweet - Falling In Love With My Older Married Aunt
It didn't bother me that she was married because I just wanted to be with her for whatever time I could.
Healing, Not The Law, Gave Me My Justice - This is My Survivor Story
M tells us a complex story about violence, justice and ideal victims!
My Clients Celebrate Relationships With Me That They Can’t Even Mention Outside The Therapy Room: A Therapist’s Diary
A therapist wonders if we can relook how we approach 'problematic' relationships
Do You Dare Confess Your One Sided Love?
He loves someone else, but he doesn't mind me loving him in this one-sided fashion.
Breaking My Heart And Finding Myself
Imran on why queer break-ups are hard, but you can't lose yourself entirely in love.
Love Paranoia
After every rejection I ask, is it my disability?
QUESTIONS. RUMINATION. CONVERSATION Or What is he doing right now?
Bad Habits, Good Women: My Conversations with Nuns
Unmarried, celibate, religious – is every nun the same kind of woman? Nikhita finds out!
My Wobbly Bits: Making Friends with My New-Old Body
In my 50's, I'm rearing a kid by myself and greeting new body parts ever so frequently.
The Case Of The Missing Butterflies In My Tummy
I thought if I gave myself a push, I’d fall into the hormone pool everyone was swimming in.
See-Saw Sexual Confidence Ka!
What people said brought their sexual confidence up or down!
Bodies in Pain: Reclaim, not Shame
Angel's journey of accepting that her period pain was real, not imaginary or inconsequential.
Where is my Education? A Transman’s Story
The everyday struggles of a trans man attending university.
Fan : Why I Love Shah Rukh Khan
If you love him, you love him the way he loves his heroines – unabashedly, inexplicably, and forever.
Stories From A Survey: Mohan's Story
Stories From A Survey: Manju's Story
Seen Zoned, IRL
It turned ‘seen’ instantly, like never before. Bundles of crackers went off in my heart.
Kabhi Alvida Kehna! How I Said Ta-Ta Bye-Bye to Gender Norms and Became Beautiful
It was not easy to dress like a girl outside; only in the secrecy of my room.
Discovering My Sexual Self Through Therapy
Now that I have been living by myself, the quietness has given me time to take off these masks.
Friendship: The Movie featuring Uncertain Love
Shocking - Queer people confused if their flirting is romantic or platonic!
My Body, My Confusion
My idea of the feminine was intrinsic to the experience of heterosexuality.
Good Friends, Bad Boys And Friendship Betrayals
Do you remember your first friendship break-up? Pranav does!
My Best Friend, My Wedding and Other Breakup Stories
Can BFF's getting coupled up throw your dosti into crisis?
I Have Erotic Friendships And It's Not Complicated
Aditya writes to reveal new definitions of friendship - and sex!
My Mother’s Lost Friendships
How can marriage and family expectations slowly bleach friendship out of a woman's life?
You Are My Di!
What keeps an intense friendship alive in a world that defines love & friendship separately?
Can Your Vulnerability Make You Mean? Mine Did.
What memories can a unexpected apology from a childhood bully bring up?
I Will Not Write About The Boy I Like
The world is imploding. I should not be writing about the boy I like, who recently told me he likes me too.
This Was My Adolescence! 7 People Tell Us How Their Youth Shaped their Adult Lives
Oh Boy! That's a Sex Toy (For Penis Owners)
Toys to please your P's - Penis and Prostate!
“Rubbing, rubbing, nothing is happening!”
What can a quest to find out about the mythical ‘orgasm’ look like?
Of Desire, Sex and Size
“Oh, are you wearing a sleeveless top? Have you looked at your size?”
Of Simps, Sluts and Societal Pressure - My Time in a 'Boys Club'
Nayana talks about conditioning, internalized misogyny and self-hate through her experiences in a “boys club” in school.
Love Was Not A Cure For My Masculine Anxieties
“Pyaar ka sitam means love comes to us with great promise, to fill our lives, but the truth is it can only fill very little of us,” says Anand Yadav, battling with the pressure that the idea of ‘love’ brings with it.
Some of us need to be understood differently: Breaking Up and Mental Illness
Rukmini writes about her relationship and break-up, and how as a person with mental-illness, she wishes it could have been done differently.
Uncle’s Fault : What I Understand Now About Grooming
How do cultural norms rooted in respect for seniority enable grooming
What Does Queerness Care About Productivity? A Poem
The mind was kept busy while the body craved attention. The more it craved, the more I got busy.
The Vicious Ability of Ableism: What do you do when you're explicitly told that you're unlovable, over and over again?
Platonic Pyaar in the Time of Corona
The Story of My “Diagnosis”: What if Nothing is Wrong With Me?
How is absence of shaadi or coupledom an 'abnormality' for the society and for oneself?
If Love is A Rose, Mine is Rather Grotesque
Once bitten, twice shy – Can one learn to trust again?
WHY MEN DON'T TALK ABOUT MASTURBATORS - AND OTHER QUESTIONS YOU NEVER THOUGHT TO ASK
How restricting sex to peno-vaginal intercourse hinders possibilities of self-pleasure
How to Muse a Man
Why are always men finding muse in women in books and films?
The Curious Case of Absent Serenading Heroines in My Life
Where to find those Bollywood heroines who serenade the hero?
To Think Of All the Bisexual Love I’ve Missed!
I’m 28 and I recently realized I’m bisexual.
How the Internet Changed the Way We Make Friends
What does it mean to form bonds in the world of digital connections?
Looking For Love on a Dating App…And What It Taught Me
How experiences of dishonesty sour dating in the digital world
The One My Mother Warned Me About AKA Chais With Guys
Can breaking rules make our own choices and chai sweeter?
Self-love, And Other Jarring Tasks I Am Forced To Perform During Lockdown
What if lockdown loneliness found you new love?
PROSTATE AND PATRIARCHY
Why does prostate pleasure scare conventional masculinity?
Kahin pe Nishana, Kahin Pe Nigahein
A party, flirtation, class, and a romantic twist.
I am Big and Beautiful
A fat woman rises to own her sexuality, desire and desirability
A Live-In In Lockdown
What does lockdown mean for a couple living-in in a big city?
BOSOMS - A Poem
A poem about a little girl's desire to have big breasts
A Prostitute and A Saviour: A Diary
A trans-person's journey through sex-work and back
Why Does Guilt Follow Pleasure - An Investigative Documentary About Me
Moving from guilt to satisfaction in sex!
“If He Does 'This', Girl You Need To Let Go Of Him!”
How the Discussion on 'Toxic' stuff can become toxic to live with
How Masturbation Helped Me Cope With Heartbreak
Masturbation and other remedies for rejection.
TWO OR THREE THINGS I LEARNED FROM BEING ALONE
How living alone during a pandemic changes how we think of our wellness.
My Body In Bed Isn’t Any Kind of Map To Pleasure
What is intimacy like when it’s traumatic to live in your body/head?
My Struggle To Live and Love With Vaginismus
How does trauma manifest in our bodies and our intimacies
It Was ‘Twilight’. I Woke Up Bisexual.
How one can stumble upon one's (bi)sexuality with the help of fiction / fan-fiction
Sex Sure Doesn't Need #PeriodLeaves
What's so special about the flow period sex can take?
Being A Sub Made Me Bloom And Widened My Perspective
What sharing intimacy with strangers online may reveal about your kinky self.
Dear Girls Who Sent Nudes, Thank You
What leaking of nude pictures says about betrayal of consent and privacy.
Romantic Sensual Asexual - That’s Me
Can one be asexual and terribly romantic too?
The Adorable Boys Who Love ‘Papa Bear’
Who decided that desire is only for the young?
I Ghosted Him. Then I Got A Second Chance.
Caught between shame and surprise, will a ghost-er make a different choice?
To All the Boys I Couldn't Love Before
What fleeting connections with many interesting men tell you about having the hots for none of them.
S.W.A.G (Secretly We Are Gay) 2: Till We Meet Again
Revisiting an old lover with new realisations and self-admission.
Memories of Touch- Poem In A Pandemic
In the protected rooms where people are intubated there are no last hugs and the only thing to touch may be the glass of the window through which you can look at them
I Took A Nude Selfie. It Changed My Life.
After years of hiding, can a nude selfie get Ini to see her body in a new light?
Can I Open The Window And Let Go Of The Past?
A journey back to a room full of a traumatic memory to seek reconciliation.
Tell Me Tarot, Will He Ever Come Back?
After Manjari is ghosted, all search for closure leads to herself.
June Rewind - #WhenWomenLoveWomen, All In One Place
Stories, histories and resources for queer women - ek dhamakedar package!
You've Got Mail! Letters Between An Older and A Younger Lesbian - Plain Text Version
Secret Loves And Broken Hearts: A Comic
A comic about queer desire, love, and loss.
Satrangi Ladki, Atrangi Khiladi: A Comic About Shiela
The many romances and realities of this dashing woman!
You’ve Got Mail! Letters Between An Older and A Younger Lesbian
How much has changed for women who love women in urban India?
Shiela Ki Jawaani Ki Anokhi Kahaani
An excerpt from Maya Sharma's Loving Women: Being Lesbian in Unprivileged India
"So Many Women, But It's Her I Love"
An excerpt from Maya Sharma's Loving Women: Being Lesbian in Unprivileged India
Lockdown Diaries: There's A Naked Woman In My Mirror! F*** It's ME!
When there is nobody to call us beautiful, what might we discover while binge-watching ourselves?
I Kissed A Girl And I Liked It - 7 Queer Women Tell Us About Their First Kiss With A Girl
Stories of people's first taste of pleasure and tenderness
What Falling For My Friend As A Lesbian Taught Me About How We Express Friendship
Does queerness complicate the experience of falling for a friend?
I Have a Disability. Why Does Everyone Keep Saying That Love is Not For Me?
It took me way too long to realise that I, too, was allowed to love. That I, too, was worthy of it.
S.W.A.G. Secretly We Are Gay
Two closeted gay men, who are married to women, fall in love with each other.
The (Secret) Porn That Turns Me On
Must our fantasies mirror our real-life sexual preferences?
Does Size Matter? A True Story
For a man with a small penis, porn and condoms can unite in a nightmare.
As A Man Am I Condemned To Choose Violence Over Love? Maybe Not.
I hit her. The realisation of what I did, and the guilt it brought is unbearable even now.
Is ‘Good Touch’ and ‘Bad Touch’ an Unhelpful Shortcut to Teaching Kids about Consent?
Is focusing all our energy only on preventing abuse, instead of building autonomy, missing the woods for the trees?
The Shame Around My Friend's Abortion Scarred Us All - A Comic
A comic about Akhil's memory of a school friend who needed help.
How My Girlfriend's Abortion Made Me A Better Man: A Comic
M's story about a life-changing incident.
What Emraan Hashmi Couldn’t Teach Me About Dhichak Dhichak
I thought sex meant lying next to someone under a blanket and smooching. I was so, so wrong
I Believe in the Promises Made by Passing Strangers: Cruising and the City
Leaving behind the threshold of our homes, what other boundaries do we cross?
Maybe Fighting with a Friend isn't Such a Bad Thing
Why do we find it so easy to let friendship fade away?
More Than An Identity: How I Realised My Struggle Was With Being Sexual, Not Homosexual
My identity as a queer person became a bit of a shield from the world of love, the world of sex
A Mudblood Child of a Love Marriage
From my parents’ inter-caste marriage, I learned that love was worth hardship
Amma, I Wonder If You Had Orgasms
I have always wanted to ask you this. Can you tell me about your orgasms?
How Shru Stopped Hating Herself (With A Little Help From Her Dad)
From self-harm and shame, to learning to be your own hero!
Main Apni Sabse Favourite Hoon: Chronicles of an Instaspam Queen
What is it about being a woman on Instagram that is so joyous, so satisfying – and so annoying to men?
I Faked Orgasms to be Polite
You know how we’re taught that good kids don't go for second helpings of food? I carried that training into my sex life
To be Truly Sex Positive, I Think We Need to Step Back From Sex
Between being strictly platonic and having sex is a sea of sensuality. Are we ready to see that yet?
Muh Bole Rishte - 6 People Describe Their Chosen Families
Society might say “Only family is forever”, but here are stories of 6 people forming their closest bonds, beyond blood.
Menopause: A Poem
"My tongue has sharpened."
How My Relationships Made Me Question Pyaar, Azaadi aur Accountability
Is ‘demanding accountability’ just a euphemism for trying to control someone?
My Valentine To Milind
A digital altar for our collective fantasy of this effortlessly beautiful man.
How I Grew Out of My Turbulent Teens
Life as a schoolgirl was about trying to fit in; to be seen and not seen; self-hate and self-harm. Talking about it to other people was the first step in a new direction
My Male Friends and I Talked About Sex Constantly, But Not How We Really Felt About It
I’m trying to unlearn everything I’d absorbed in predominantly male spaces. It’s making me a better person.
When a Workshop about Love and Desire Turned into a Raucous Party
Sex Actually: It Was My First Time, and I Had Gotten My Period!
As part of our #SexActually series, we asked people to write to us about their real-life experiences of sex. This 23-year-old author tells us about her recent experience of putting theory into practice and why it will always be special to her. (23 then, 23 now)
What I Learned from Reading Erotica at Twelve
My First Time Taught Me How Not to Have Sex
a historic day
A short poem for September 6, 2018
You Should Wear Maroon For Your Skin" and Other Advice I've Ignored as a Non-Fair Woman
Why hide under drab colours? Bold lip art – bright colours, filigree designs, polka dots – are my jam
I Thought Dye-ing Young Would Make Me More Desirable. Twenty-Three Years Later, I’m Ready to Stop
Trying to hide white hair now seems like an avoidable agony
What My Live-In Relationship Taught Me About Consent
She wanted to say no, but felt compelled to say yes. She would signal how she truly felt, but he would pretend not to understand. Consent proved tricky and elusive, until she developed the muscle she needed to say 'no'.
My Exes Live in a Sexy Nexus. I Love them All
We need our exes like we need our brothers and sisters and favourite cousins to remember who we were
'I Hope that My Art Replaces Judgement with Acceptance'
I express queerness through my art, then it exists with all the politics and the complexities that surround it, whether it’s social or it’s personal.
Isn't A Whatsapp Love Story A Real Love Story?
Could you fall crazily in love with someone you've never met IRL?
Sex Actually: Memories of Mid-Afternoon Sex, and Losing Friends
From Saat Khoon Maaf to Khoon-Kharaba : Ways People React To Cheating!
Stories from people who discovered their lovers’ infidelity, what happened next and what they think about it now.
How Dancing Helped Me Fix My Broken Heart
There is no gender in dance. Pick your gender for today and tomorrow if I ask you to switch you should be able to do it .
Sex Actually: Ecstasy, Anxiety and the Fear of Being Judged
Sex, as it actually is.
Different Personas In Bed
Perhaps we adopt sexual personas to make ourselves feel more confident, or to make our lovers feel more confident. Some people adopt different personas as a temporary holiday from their real lives.
Sex Actually: Of Broken Vaginas and Negotiating Consent
New stories of women's unforgettable sexual encounters.
The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Girlfriend
There is only so much that can be romanticised about a long-distance relationship and the magical reunion that'll fix everything.
Thoughts You Can't Avoid When Your Long-Distance Relationship is Doomed
I suppose one of the perks of being in a long-distance relationship is that you can foster a few pimples which pixelate into the rest your skin on Skype.
I Stopped a Man From Harassing a Young Boy on a Bus, Because it's Happened to Me Too
Think about all the hotel rooms, offices, malls, streets, building blocks and so many other places all over the world where similar things might be happening at this very moment.
Why Flirting Without Agenda Matters: Lessons from the Caribbean
There is a way to verbally and non-verbally gauge another person’s interest without harassing them. It’s called flirting
What Is It Like To Have Sex and Love With Both Men and Women
Sex with men and with women is actually very different but it’s difficult to articulate the difference in sensation.
Why I Believe Love is Like Quantum Physics (But in a Good Way)
The strange similarities between love and the theory of quantum entaglement.
I Dreamed of Having a Suhaag Raat Straight Out of the Movie Kama Sutra. My Actual Experience Was Nothing Like It
It’s been a decade since I had sex with a man.
Sex Actually 2.0 :
Stories of women's sexual experiences and thoughts... continued.
Sex Actually: The Sexual Encounter Women Say They Can't Forget
Women make sense of their diverse sexual experiences.
People Call Me 'Pervert' Because I Like Sex
They can laugh and shame me all they want, but it's through sexual relationships that I learned how to build trust, seek consent, and stop judging
Curious Cat or Sleeping Dragon: What's your position on positions?
Is the definition of good sex many-positions wala sex?
Dating an Older Woman Made Me Take Myself and Relationships More Seriously
It made me do a lot of prioritizing and reorganizing. It was stabilizing.
LOVE, SEX AND KHICHDI
I just wanted to hold him tight and never let go. I wanted to make sure he would come back and I wanted to scream at him for untangling the ‘not’s in my chest.
LONGING IS THE SPICE THAT MAKES A MEAL OF SEX FOR ME
Longing is a spice. Its essence pulls you close, teases the appetite at the slightest taste. What is love without longing?
Mard, Mann Aur Jealousy: 5 Men Talk about Dealing With Unusual Jealousies
Unusual jealousies men experience and how it affects the way they look at themselves as sexual beings.
WE MET ON GRINDR. NOW THE INTIMACY OF THE SEX WE HAD MAKES IT HARD FOR ME TO FORGET HIM
Some loves are sexual, where emotion, body and connection become powerfully joined in the intimacy of sex more than anything else. It is an intoxication, a nasha that’s hard to forget, because it runs deep.
Are We Together or Broken Up? The Agony of Ambiguity.
I was afraid to straight up ask him for an answer and he didn’t have the decency to be a bit clearer.
my mother does not know i am wearing her sari. how long must I hide?
poetry and poetic prose by soz
A Thousand and One Stories of Coming Out
I learnt that people are always jockeying for power and invariably looking for that one thing to pick on you about. In my case, it is my sexual orientation
My Year of Flings
In retrospect, it seems to me that my ‘hooking-up’ was not so much about seeking temporary partners, it was more about establishing power. To make myself needed, yet always be out of reach.
How Gujrati Porn Made Me Realise I Was Asexual
The way I was not feeling anything while watching porn, I did not feel any kind of attraction and sexual desire for anyone either.
I was the Abusive One In My Relationship. My Break-up Taught Me To Change.
I’ve realised that there is no purpose to just feeling perpetually guilty. What I can do now is never treat anyone else the way I treated her.
My First Break-Up Was Nothing Like The Movies
We just sat down, wringing our hands. I said, “We have to confront reality. I don’t think we should be together anymore.”
Dosti is Pyaar: Being Lost and Finding Friends
If pyaar is dosti, it took me a while to understand that that dosti is also pyaar, but more forgiving.
How I Helped My Mother Watch Porn and Other Stories
Can a young woman learn to accept her mother too is a sexual being?
I LEARNT HOW TO EXPRESS AFFECTION AND LOVE IN FRIENDSHIP THE HARD WAY
Sometimes I think that friendship and hugging are oddly co-related. Both exist in a place of love which is somewhere between sexual love and cordial acquaintance.
Diary of An Indian Sex Educator
It was a co-ed school. But the boys were not going to learn about the body.
Why I'll Never Stop Masturbating
I accidentally discovered orgasms at 14, and began a thrilling solo trip
I Came Out To My Mom And Now I Think She's Fomosexual
A mother's totally unexpected response to her daughter's coming out!
Dil Google Google ho gaya AKA how I internet stalked my way through a break up
I’d scroll down from post to post, to find semblance of a love lost. As though trying to relive our time together by scrolling down will undo everything that happened to us.
When Pets Walk In On Sex
Let’s face it, pets do become like family for most people. While we may all have worked out ways of getting away from our families in the pursuit of ishq, animal children have a sneaky way of sticking around and refusing to be shooed out of the room.
I Felt Humiliated for Contracting an STI But I Know I'm Touchable, Lovable and More-Than-Sexable
Getting an STI is surrounded by shame and shaming, even at times, by doctors.
Making Sense of An Ending
For 25 Years I've Stayed Faithful To A Husband Who Refused Me Sex
Do I need sex? Well not really but I’d definitely like some.
WHAT 'NO STRINGS ATTACHED' TAUGHT ME ABOUT LOVE AND SEX
A young woman asks some 'un-cool' questions about NSA relationships
How I Taught Myself To Have Orgasms
When I came around, so to speak, I remember laughing aloud to myself. I was shell-shocked for sure, but unbelievably excited. I wasn’t fucking anorgasmic, I’d just been doing it wrong my whole stupid life.
Watch Me As I Fall In Love: 5 Trans Persons Talk About Dating
Love is supposed to be the simplest thing, but it isn’t.
Hot Mama: Or How I Went from Comfortably Numb to Shape of You
Could I Have Been Misogynist Even Though I Was a Woman? Why?
Today, I feel to an utmost certainty that I am not pretty, and even slightly indulging in dressing up makes me feel like a fraud.
Savita Bhabhi and I: A True Love Story
Here is something you should know about me. I wrote three stories for Savita Bhabhi.
A Craving For French Fries
Have you ever had this sudden, urgent, mad craving for french fries? Like I did, on rainy days when petrichor can drive you to delirium.
To All The (Straight) Men I've Loved Before
Let loose, this rise of the body and soul caused me to constantly fall in love with many a lissom lad
My Konark Summer
Fantasy Mein Kya Sharmana: My Secret Crushes
UNFUCKABLE ME (OR, “YOU’RE NOT LIKE OTHER GIRLS”)
The Bhabhi Next Door
"I like talking to a Bhabhi in the neighbourhood because of her outspoken and frank opinions on sex" says Saurabh "but I feel nervous too because she is so bold." The conversations excite him and Bhabhi extends an invitation. WiIl Saurabh take her up on it? Listen to this podcast about a young man's fantasies and anxieties about sex.
George Michael, The Sex-Ed Teacher We Never Had
And all this while dear George, hot-sexy-smooth George Michael in his snug denims kept telling us, ‘Sex is natural, sex is good, sex is fun, sex is chemical’.
"I've slowly learnt to keep the lights on." Body, Images and Sex: A Storified Conversation
Body, Images and Sex: A Storified Conversation with Kripa Joshi, Rani Dhaschainey and Ratna Devi Manokaran
Every Navratri Falguni Made Me Feel That Queer Is Ekdum Cool
A song of ishq for Falguni Pathak!
NOT A HAIR IN PLACE: SEX, WAXING AND THE BODY IN MY MIND
Body hair and sex - that complicated relationship!
ISHQ VISHQ SEX VEX
EXPLORING TOUCH TO EXPLOSIVE TOUCH
Let Manu take you on his journey of touch from naive bodily explorations with his male friends to the electric, experiences with the opposite sex, and along the way understandings about consent, mutuality and the simple pleasures of pleasure!
I DIDN’T BELIEVE IN LOVE – THEN I FOUND POLYAMORY
Well. Polyamory done right, as it turns out, is a lot of work!
In A Gay Bar You Can See Forever
An Indian man at 31, in a gay bar for the first time, experiencing male erotic tenderness for the first time.
You, Me (Aur STD)
A pertinent but unexpected question asked on a random dating app led Luna to get tested for STDs. Just using condoms is not enough!
Amma, It's Time We Had THE TALK
Discuss sex with your parents? Tell them that you are sexually active? Nope, not happening. But Srinidhi managed to do so. Read to find out how THE TALK took place between Srinidhi and her mother!
We're Not Serious and Other Non-Promises
"What is sex sex I want to scream? Is what we’ve been having un-sex sex? Is one superior to the other? Is this one inferior to that one?" Alia questions the boundaries between love, lust, sex and long-term relationships.
The Flower of My Secret Sex Life
A young woman's candid and joyful account of her search for a relationship with her sexual self.
Jewels like Flowers: About Men's Bodies and Women's Desires
We are always made aware of the beauty of the feminine, but what about the masculine figures? Read this essay by Elisa Brune to know a woman’s love for the opposite sex.
I Have Erotic Friendships And It’s Not Complicated
