'Everything is broken and messed up and completely fine. That is what life is. It's only the ratios that change. Usually on their own.'
I can't say I haven't read a book like this before but it certainly is the very best of its kind.
Another year around the sun. Unbelievable that you've managed to keep yourself alive all these years.
Happy Birthday, Greatest Lover Boi. I hope you have a year of greater triumphs and lesser 'Babe, where's the xyz?' ♥️🌻🧿
Twenty-something Delphi, a resident of Cooke Town, Bangalore, has just discovered the theatre. A production of Antigone becomes her portal to a new world. She meets a cast of varied and colourful people and is propelled into a cultural milieu she doesn’t fully understand but is eager to be a part of.
As she tries to find her footing on stage, Delphi also navigates the everyday realities of her young life. There’s her mother Asha, who wants her to enrol in a respectable master’s degree. There’s her best friend Su, who is in a less -than-ideal marriage. And there is V, her somewhat-boyfriend and coconspirator, who she opens a theatre company with. There’s also music—so much of it.
As the city’s theatre landscape braces for the opening of a new venue, Navarasa, Delphi stands at the brink of her new life, ready. But shortly after, the country erupts into protests in the aftermath of the horrific 2012 gangrape. Now her questions, both on and off stage, begin to overlap and confront each other.
Whose story becomes whose to tell and who benefits from it?
In an already confusing, underfunded contemporary arts landscape, Good Arguments is a tender coming-of-age novel in which Delphi and her companions follow their calling. It looks at a life in the theatre both critically and with love.
Good Arguments by Deepika Arwind releasing on January 9th. Pre-order from the link in bio!✨🙌🏻
Cover Design: @ahlawat.gunjan
#goodarguments #deepikaarwind #comingofagenovel #indianfiction #literaryfiction #theatrelife #bangalorestories #womeninfiction #artandactivism #contemporaryindianwriting
Such a delight to be in conversation with my editor @megomukherjee at the @manoramahortus !
We spoke about a ton of things — how Forbidden Desire came to exist; what the research entailed; on India’s queer pasts & futures.
Wonderful venue, an engaged audience, great conversations, a lovely day.
'What makes some forms of s*x more acceptable than others?
What is a ‘k*nk’ but an act of s*xual int*macy that is deemed offensive or odd by people you have never met before? You’re Somebody’s K*nk examines how we define healthy s*x lives and build moments of s*xual connection that defy conventional expectations of penov*ginal s*x with org*sms as their end-goal.
Through vulnerable storytelling and provocative insights into the world of k*nks, f*tishes, and B*SM, the book leaves you with questions that invite you to detach shame from play and redefine affirming and healthy s*x with compassion towards yourself and the people you may someday meet.
Using a series of candid interviews with vanilla couples, amateur k*nksters, and experienced B*SM practitioners, this book takes you on an informative, compassionate, and scintillating journey of looking at s*x through a variety of perspectives including queerness, trauma, chronic illness, long-distance love, fears of ageing, and more, that serve as undeniable proof that s*xuality is meant to be ever-changing and that you will always be someone’s dream come true.
You're Somebody's K*nk by Tanisha Rao coming soon!✨📖📚
Drawing from a wide range of disciplines including feminist historiography, anthropology, histories of sexuality, South Asian queer theory, decolonial and subaltern studies, the history of medicine, legislative history, and informed by the author’s primary archival research, Forbidden Desire aims to undo the deleterious effects of British colonialism on India’s rich queer past. ✨📖
Forbidden Desire by Sindhu Rajasekaran out now! Order online or head to the bookstore near you to grab a copy.📚
#gender #sexuality #sex #queer #lgbtq #lgbtq🌈 #protofeminist #feminism
In this episode of Editors Recommend, Megha Mukherjee, editor at Simon & Schuster India, shares a few of her favourite reads 📚✨
Which one’s going on your TBR list?🙌🏻
This book happened quite by accident. Sindhu had posted an excerpt of her thesis online, and I happened to come across it while scrolling through X—something I hardly do. A couple of emails and DMs later, we had a chat, then a proposal, and finally a contract.
All of that, has led to this brilliantly written (and beautifully designed, thank you Gunjan!) book. I have never come across history written like this. It is anything but droll and drab. The writing has so much life and zest, it feels like a long, scandalous chat.
Needless to say, I'm super proud of the end result. I'm also extremely proud of Sindhu (who went and got her doctorate in the middle of this) who revamped her thesis into this sparkling, vibrant thing, that too in record time.
Out next month from @simonandschusterin
Pre-order is live now. 🌻💃🏽
