Just chatted with Radha, a historian of gender & culture at Durham University. Radha also writes astutely on music, courtesans, poets, waghera-waghera. We are plotting our version of Tawaifmandi - her expert research, my experience (as a lacklustre tawaif). Coming soon.

TLC over exposed.🫣

Last year, this day, I put out the cover image of TLC (see pinned tweet) hoping some people will read the book. The courtesan now appears in TIME magazine (yep, i forgot to breathe typing ALL CAPS). Itna toh sochna bhi WAQT ke pareh tha. Make a medal & wear this tweet. Mumma!😭❤️

Rehana.Alamzeb.Kotha. What's common to us? My mother Rekha was called Rehana by my not-a-nawab father Khan saab. He called me Aurangzeb but I chose Alamgir. Like Alamzeb, I too grew up in a kotha, dreaming of being a writer. Hai na kamaal ka coincidence?😎youtu.be/apRdUYKxUWs?si…

I am not too sure if i should run this Insta-type contest here but what the heck... DM me your answer if you are any wiser. 😎

Beauty is the promise of happiness. There are many styles of beauty as there are visions of happiness, says Stendhal.

In this heatwave, the only consolation of philosophy is to envision an affordable electricity bill with a spongy air-conditioner.

Haye garmi.🥵

Har fikr ko dhuen mein udaa...

I, too, dislike it.
Reading it, however, with a perfect contempt for it, one discovers in
it, after all, a place for the genuine.
--Marianne Moore

Chamkila sings to the Well
The Well does not sing back to Chamkila
Why don't you, asks Chamkila
You are both voice and echo, says the Well