I know why I stayed with you. Because the alternative was loneliness. This kind - the aching in your bones, the starving desperation, asking "when will I be whole again?" And so I wait. Willing that someday I’ll lay myself to rest. Someday I’ll wake and there you’ll be, a warm reminder that life doesn’t have to be an empty cage, spent solitary, sequestered, silent, alone. So now I lament. Speak the virtues of asserting oneself, not knowing how long I myself will last. When will the hope run dry? When will life take its bitter course? I run up the hill, only to find that beyond is nothing but the same barren terrain laid open, as if to say, "there is nothing but me left".

This paper was presented at the 2022 Staff and Student conference at London Metropolitan University Between the 17th and 19th centuries, Britain had a policy of sending British born criminals to overseas territories as punishments for alleged crimes, often without fair trial and with little evidence proving their conviction. Sending…

It’s strange how fallible we are. I’d built up strength, like a tree digging deep into the soil for its roots. I’d grown fervent. Unfurled like a piece of string, stood firm, two solid feet in a soldier’s pose. And then I saw your name and I crumbled. Rippling cracks…

The problem with discussions of feminism in Bollywood is that they tend to argue that Bollywood is or isn’t feminist. My aim in this piece is therefore contentious: I’m going to suggest that Bollywood is neither feminist nor patriarchal but both. — Ganga, a dainty, doll-faced young woman wants to be a movie star. Every night she dreams of dancing alongside Dev Anand (a Bollywood idol of the 1950s to 70s), as his one and true love, gracing the silver screen with her elegance. One evening, her boyfriend excitedly waves train tickets…

Why the ‘cancel culture’ debate fails to recognise how European thought has erased (and continues to erase) whole cultures, histories and civilisations simply because they don’t fit middle-class European norms — The ‘cancel culture’ debate winds me up. Particularly when academics claim that they are afraid of expressing their ‘true’ findings for fear of losing their careers. …

Being told that things could be a lot worse shouldn’t prevent us from fighting for something better — In an argument about gender roles my aunt told me that I should count myself lucky because my parents give me greater freedom than most girls receive. Cue exasperated eye-roll. I’m 30. Unwed, but/and fucking 30. I do not need to be grateful for the fact that my parents don’t…

I had a recent epiphany: I seek validation from men. Not groundbreaking, I’m sure, but nonetheless revelatory. Despite being an ardent, in-your-face, fuck men feminist, I seek validation from men. I need men to tell me that I’m intelligent, that I’m admirable, that I possess wonderful qualities, and that the…

This story is set in Australia and was written as a Christmas fairy tale for a friend who enjoys sewing. In the tiny town of Adelaide, far, far, away from civilisation, there lived two young children who went by the names of Eliza and Henry. Eliza and Henry were very…

I’ve been struggling to find place and space for my thoughts through writing. I can’t. The more I try to consider my depression, the more alienated I feel from myself. Why are the words so difficult to recover? …