List in progress. Writing is a history of my body, and the places it has inhabited.
It is tempting to want to curate this very carefully, but as the internet increasingly proves itself ephemeral, what does it mean to have all my writing catalogued in one place. Here is writing done in bathrooms, behind water tanks, on trains, buses and flights, at desks with and without views, in waiting rooms of various kinds, on purloined internet, writing I am proud of, writing that makes me roll my eyes at how formulaic it can be, triggering alarm bells when I discover how I use words to say nothing at all, because a deadline must be met and the rent must be paid. But words, when used to say something, or conversely, nothing, still fill time and space, and I am still here.
recent work
Finding home in the act: How Aagaaz theatre trust empowers young lives through art (2024)
Frontline
The arts-based community empowers children, teens, and working-class women to dream, challenge, and build a future where everyone belongs.
‘Parallel Cities’ distils the complexity of urban experience (2024)
STIR
Drawing on the arts and literature, the city is the protagonist of this transcultural exhibition featuring Indian and Italian artists, at the Italian Cultural Institute, New Delhi.
The Indian Ceramics Triennale draws our attention to difference and solidarity (2024)
STIR
In its second edition, the Triennale showcases ceramic practices that intricately bridge the past and present.
‘Photography is a reciprocal event’: Shahidul Alam (2023)
Frontline
For the Bangladeshi photojournalist and activist, photography is a means to an end, and the end is to achieve social justice.
Reflecting on my residency process (2023)
TAKE on Art Magazine, Issue 29
An account of the creative process and turning points during my residency as the recipient of the Art Writers’ Award 2022
One foot after another (2023)
TAKE on Art Blog
On discovering a physical practice and embodied rhythms while hiking. Written during my Art Writers’ Award residency at Villa Sträuli in Winterthur, Switzerland.
Encountering Structure/s (2023)
TAKE on Art Blog
A post on being an artist in residence, written during my Art Writers’ Award residency at Villa Sträuli in Winterthur, Switzerland.
A scripted performance in Chandigarh puts stubble burning in focus (2023)
Frontline
A group of artists stage a public hearing, using artworks as evidence to understand Delhi’s poor air quality
What the CIA did in Tibet is now on display at Kochi Muziris Biennale (2023)
Frontline
An exhibition highlights how Tibetans trained by the US fought Chinese forces to free Tibet
Losing Control is Hard Work (2022)
Hindustan Times
Finding the queer icon in Sridevi
Interrogating a Decade of Dance: PECDA and the contemporary dance landscape in India (2022)
The Hindu, Sunday Magazine
Reflections on a biennial competition for contemporary dance makers in India
Sentient Beings (2020)
Five Million Incidents blog
Recalibrating the ‘human’ in isolation
There’s Still Time (2019)
Indent: The Body and the Performative | Vol. 2 | Present Continuous
An introduction to the second volume of the peer-reviewed performance journal, Indent
Body | Space | Time (2019)
Harper Collins Publishers India
A curatorial essay on four new works of performance at Serendipity Arts Festival 2018
Interview with Astad Deboo (2018)
Scroll
An interview with choreographer Astad Deboo, on the brink of 50 years in dance
Where does the body begin and end? (2018)
Indent: The Body and the Performative | Vol. 1 | Strategies of Resistance
An introduction to the first volume of the peer-reviewed performance journal, Indent
Classical dance in the here and now (2018)
Firstpost
What learnings from the section 377 judgement can we take to classical dance?
The ‘real’ thing (2018)
Firstpost
Does the act of watching or seeing always function in relation to the ‘live’?
Motion Control (2018)
Firstpost
We relate to each other through the digital interface, and yet there can be discomfort and anxiety around how technology intersects with dance.
Love and Swan Lake (2018)
Firstpost
Swan Lake attracts choreographers who want to re-evaluate what the tale signifies, as well as the question of who gets to fall in love on stage
‘Ability’ and the spectrum of performative possibilities (2018)
Firstpost
Dismantling notions of the ‘perfect’ dancing body
Person or performer? The value of process (2018)
Firstpost
Does ‘performance’ exist in a detached capsule of time that is a respite from daily life, or do we see it in the context of how dance relates to society?
Dance as an accumulation of past, present and future (2018)
Firstpost
Dance forms that now seem consolidated and ‘permanent’ are themselves works in progress, snowballing into accumulations of their past, present and future selves.
As our understanding of dance expands, the boundaries of the discipline call for reconfiguration (2018)
Firstpost
On interdisciplinarity and the porous boundaries between various idioms of performance
Significant Issues for Contemporary Dancers in India (2017)
Marg: A Magazine of the Arts, Volume 68 Number 4
What does it mean to be a contemporary dancer in India?
A search for tawaifs in Old Delhi reveals a present that’s not always comfortable with the past (2017)
Scroll
Looking for traces of courtesans on a walking tour of Old Delhi
How the Not in My Name protests inspired us to create nightlong performances of resistance (2017)
Scroll
The Long Nights of Resistance series mobilises dance, music and poetry to reclaim the citizen body
Friends with Benefits (2017)
Ligament
Pondering classical love in the digital interface
Liminal Spaces: Odissi as a Continually Evolving Form (2016)
In ed. Anita Cherian, Tilt Pause Shift: Dance Ecologies in India, Tulika Books, New Delhi.
Interrogating the changing meanings of Odissi
25 Years of Nrityagram (2015)
DailyO
A tribute to the Odissi institution in its silver jubilee year
All Stories for The Hindu (2010 onwards)
The Hindu
I’ve written feature stories on the arts for The Hindu since 2010.
All Stories for Asian Age (2011-12)
Asian Age
I wrote weekly features on the arts for Asian Age from 2011-12.