• Page 2 of 15 • Intersectional Feminism, Ethical Lifestyle, Humour • Intersectional Feminism, Ethical Lifestyle, Humour

The Emancipation Of A Heavy and Weighted Heart In A Pandemic

By Abanti Chattopadhyay January 9, 2021 In Features, Intheirwords 1 BODY POSITIVITY, INTHEIRWORDS 3

2020 was the year I woke up to the possibility of being both fat and bald. I had the gumption to be only one of those. My PCOS was left unattended for far too long, and she was finally making me choose.
This essay isn’t a celebration of the 17 kgs I managed to plead out of my body. It isn’t a watered-down version of Chicken Soup for the Fat and Hurting Soul or another fat person inspiring you, notwithstanding their weight. I am not walking on-set, a months-old photo of me juxtaposed unto the screen, emphatically telling you that if I can, you can.

Weaving Her Ancestors’ Voices: Sheila Chandra’s Legacy

By Divya Sethu January 4, 2021 In Culture, Music 1 1980s music, Asian Music 1

Rarely has western music seen such a star since, who brought her heritage and culture to the forefront the way Sheila Chandra did. Her voice painted a picture and recreated her own journey through Indian culture for her listeners. Never one to cater to the masses, Chandra, now 55, has built a strong foundation for diaspora attempting to find their own voices in western culture.

Alankrita Shrivastav Reimagines Feminist Films In Dolly, Kitty, Aur Chamakte Sitare:

By Oishorjyo December 21, 2020 In Culture, Film, Film Review 0 Bollywood, FEMINISM 0

Dolly Kitty Aur Chamakte Taare received tepid reviews in the mainstream media. However, for a wayward viewer like me, the film was reminiscent of the eloquent lives of women I know. People whose stories are not speckled with grandeur, but are of inadvertence. Women who are making space for themselves inch by inch. Like my mother, my aunt, a schoolfriend from my hometown. Lives into which I only have a voyeuristic lens. Stories not of grand struggles, or taking feminist stands, but of omniscient living, any act of desire is transgression.

One Year Since CAA-NRC Protests: What I Learned, What It Meant For My Activism

By Srishti Bose December 17, 2020December 18, 2020 In Features, Intheirwords 0 Activism, CAA NRC 1

It’s been a year since multiple cities across India protested against the CAA and NRC, a year since a lot of us pierced through our bubbles of privilege and confronted the spectacle of liberal activism, and how it would manifest.

How Parenting Changed my Equation with Food

By Barkha Shah December 9, 2020 In Features, Intheirwords 0 Food, INTHEIRWORDS 0

I was a one-pot meal person. Things changed, though, after marriage and parenthood. Food became a lot of things besides a means of sustenance. It became a means of bonding, a reason for earning gratitude, an outlet for creative experimentation. And many a time it even led to exasperation and boredom.

Natasha Sachdeva: Painting Over the ‘Ideal’ Body Type

By Aisiri Amin December 3, 2020December 4, 2020 In Culture 1 Art, BODY POSITIVITY 2

Natasha Sachdeva, a 27-years-old Delhi-based artist, is asking the question: do women own their entire bodies? Or, dogged by paradigms of ideal beauty, are women compartmentalising bits and pieces, and treating what doesn’t fit a mould as other? Are we conditioned to box them off in bits and pieces labelled ‘to-be fixed’?

#TodayInDevelopment: Wildlife Sanctuary Land Cleared For Ram Temple’s Pink Pillars

By sangeetha alwar November 21, 2020December 4, 2020 In Art, Culture, Today In Development 0 #TodayInDevelopment, humour 2

#TodayInDevelopment is an on-going series by The Ladies Compartment in an attempt to find sense amid the craziness that is New India.

Kipo and the Wonderbeasts: Not Just For Kids

By THE LADIES COMPARTMENT November 19, 2020 In Culture, TV 0 Animation, avantika mehta 0

In Kipo and the Wonderbeasts, a teenage girl is lost in the big, evil world is a common trope for television, especially animation. This Netflix animation television series is different. Usually, such stories don’t catch my attention. I’m not thirteen-years-old, and exposure to the “real” world has desensitised me to the naïve, often cliched wonder depicted in such cartoons.

A Comprehensive List of India’s Best Thrift and Vintage Shops

By THE LADIES COMPARTMENT November 10, 2020January 15, 2021 In Fashion, Shopping 1 Shopping, Sustainable Shopping 1

To encash on the burgeoning resale market, tons of thrift and vintage stores opened – some websites, others on Instagram. Some of those bargain opportunities are amazing, while others appear to be abusing the word vintage in the name of profit. So, how does the average shopper separate the thrifting gold from the secondhand chaff? TLC did a deep dive, and here’s my list of the best Thrift and Vintage Stores on the Indian Interweb!

Netflix’s Chess Drama Queen’s Gambit Will Leave You Breathless Almost Till The End

By THE LADIES COMPARTMENT November 5, 2020 In Culture, TV 0 Netflix, Television 0

Queen’s Gambit’s story follows Elizabeth “Beth” Harmon’s through the world of chess, set in the late 1960s, in a coming-of-age meets The Dark Horse story.

Girls and The City: Navigating Ambition, Love, And Life In An Imperfect World

By Manreet Sodhi Someshwar November 2, 2020 In Books, Culture 0 Book, Book excerpt 0

The city is fuelled by aspiration, Juhi, her boss liked to say. And we are the fuel that fuels those aspirations, magicians who create ads that convince people that what they want is what they don’t have.