I’d never really thought about what it actually meant to be an Indian girl until my maternal grandmother and her children (all except my mother) formed a united front to continuously nag me about washing my underpants. “Ladies MUST wash their own underwear," they all said as if the safety of my country depended on…

My mother was born in 1939, at the beginning of the Second World War. By the time she was eight, two of her older sisters had already been married off. The one being a 16-year-old bride, while the oldest's marriage was slightly delayed because she was 18 when she got married. For her two older…

When I was young, I was almost raped. At least that is what my mom tells me the doctors said. I don’t recall going to the doctors or being examined. I don’t recall any clinics or hospitals; no flashbacks of nurses, nothing. Of course, the mind of a four-year-old is not reliable. It feels like…