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I Have My Grandfather’s Hands
I have my grandfather’s hands. They are square and hardy. They can hold a lot.…
10 Short Films Chronicling Pan-Asian Experiences
Representation helps us unlearn. This year, I grappled with my perspectives about celebrity, integrity, and…
Party ZINDABAD! Is Bringing Dalit and Muslim Experiences to South Asian Art Spaces
South Asians at the margins – queer, Dalit, Muslim, Bangladeshi, Tibetan, Sikh, Nepali, Pakistani, Shi’a and religious minority backgrounds – have been excluded from the institutions and cultural spaces in…
Reading List: Dalit History Month
Oppressed peoples do not lack history, they are written out of it by intention. For instance, Dalits, a term of…
Subhi’s Prolific Hindi-Pop-Jazz Music Was Made in Transit
The synergy between jazz and Indian music is no accident. Subhi continues to merge the genres and leave a legacy larger than herself. Subhi and I met on a cold…
The Simpsons Delivered a Big “F U” to the South Asian-American Community
Nothing I love more than white men telling me what’s racist. Back in November, I…
Movie Night: Wild Wild Country
Wild Wild Country is a six-part documentary series directed by brothers Chapman and Maclain Way…
Hasan Minhaj Is Getting His Own Netflix Show
Everyone’s favorite brown boy is back! Breakout star of The Daily Show, comedian Hasan Minhaj…
The Real Story of How Pad Man Became Famous by Selling Shame
This post originally appeared on Mythri Speaks. “If we want to give our daughters Sanitary…
Padmaavat: A Tragedy
Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s period-drama Padmaavat was set up to fail. The sumptuous shots of Rajasthan…
Movie Night: My Beautiful Laundrette
My Beautiful Laundrette (dir. Stephen Frears) is a beloved British film of the 1980s. It…
Love in Three Encounters
The half-life of love is forever. -Junot Diaz 1 11 pm. Whatever they’re having, you said, sweeping your arm our way. The bartender serves you and Julian whiskey sours. Julian…
Swipe Me Left, I’m Dalit
Everything from knowledge to housing to career is determined by one’s social location. And so…
Coming to Terms with My Eating Disorder
I thought I was everything but bulimic. Gluten-intolerant. Carb-phobic. A sensitive soul with a sensitive…
Evil Eye
Mama calls me wilted, a flower bending inwards. In other words, depressed. Nani calls it…
My Mother the Monk
During the first week of my recent family holiday to Sri Lanka, I was plagued…
In a country where homosexuality is outlawed, the internet provides both an escape and meeting place for LGBTQ Sri Lankans. Experts in Colombo are now studying…
Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil of Rajpipla, India’s first openly gay prince, opened the doors of his palace to LGBTQ people in need this week. Among other things, he plans to offer…
A toasty touch lingered in the elevator between breaths. A slick, green, and clean rod–encircled by mist–breached only by a set of lips, hovered gloriously in…
After creating our lord and savior, Dimple Lala, Tanuja Desai Hidier is still kicking ass. It has been fifteen years since South Asian womxn met Dimple…
Browntown: Home Is Where the Bazaar Is
Negine Jasmine: In the heart of Artesia lives little India, which is located in southeast Los Angeles. The first time I visited the streets of Artesia was when I was…
More from Kajal
Last week, the research and advocacy organization Equality Labs released a report on Caste in the United States. The national survey that formed the basis of this…
Trust what shows itself. Where do you catch your omens? Do you believe in synchronicity? Studying astrology is one of the deepest ways one can honor…
Marvia Malik, a 21 year old journalism graduate and model, has just been hired as Pakistan’s first transgender news anchor. Malik was hired by the station…
Makeup is not my strong point–I wear my face bare as often as I can. I stay away from bright colors in favor of neutral tones…
Before entering Edmund Clark’s exhibition, The Day the Music Died, you hear Don McLean’s “American Pie” playing from the bottom of the stairs. Descend into the…
Art is in the medium. As technology progresses, so does art. But the value in using classic mediums has not, and will not, be denigrated. Experiencing…
Sri Lanka declared a state of emergency on Tuesday amidst mob attacks against the minority Muslim population, resulting in at least one fatality. Tensions have long…
Krishna Kohli was elected to Pakistan’s Senate on Saturday. A Dalit Hindu, she is the first female Senator to be elected from a marginalized caste in…
As we transition to spring, the world becomes more lively. Take heed from astrological animal guides. Aries Dolphins are more empathically evolved than humans. The cortex…
Welcome to The Strumpet Diaries, a smutty illustrated comic sure to fire up your loins and get your bratwursts throbbing, written by Tara Kenny and illustrated…
Local elections in Sri Lanka last week resulted in the appointment of Colombo’s first female mayor, Rosy Senanayake of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s center-right United National…
Earlier this month, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration announced plans to push for universal healthcare in India. So far, his budget proposal envisions providing healthcare…
Last year we washed and dried our dirty laundry. Now we’re just lying in it. The month of January was weird and rough. There’s not so…
Desi Wall of Shame, a social media hashtag-turned-website, highlights South Asians in the public sphere with reprehensible politics. Notable South Asians working with the Trump administration…
UPDATE 2/8/2018: Syed Ahmed Jamal has been granted a temporary stay by Judge Glen Baker to allow his brother time to correct Jamal’s immigration status. Syed Ahmed…
Violence and discrimination against the Rohingya minority of Myanmar has a long history. 1978 was a pivotal year in this story of increasing marginalization, when a…
This work is not your monolith. Sikhi has a beautiful way of evoking even perspectives from those who embrace it. Below are three amazing artists who…
I have a deep and abiding love for nachos. Tortilla chips. Cheddar Cheese. Black beans. Lettuce. Salsa. Guacamole. Sour Cream. All piled atop one another not…
Jagmeet Singh just got engaged and the hype is making me go back to one very telling conversation. “Just think about this,” my dad told me,…
I have read many, many, many arguments online regarding the story that was released this weekend about a woman who goes by “Grace” and her date…