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Volume 006
Pleasure and Danger
Desire on the edge of a cliff
June 2025
Looking at the human experience – especially as it intersects with desire, sexuality, sex, body, age, violence, hunger and thirst – through the lens of the psyche.
If you have lived through or ever wondered about the era of rented cassette tapes and video parlours, this essay is for you. At the heart of this piece is a feminist curiosity around what women were doing, gazing at and blushing about during the heyday of video films.
Legal sanctions permit little, if any, breathing room for queer intimacies. And yet, such experiences of desire survive in silos, real-world or digital. Cybercafes, anonymous chat rooms, and dimly-lit apartments are all witness to the loneliness epidemic — exacerbated all the more for queer folks despite recent protections.
As a group of girls and a young activist refuse to bow down to upper-caste bullies, the entire village stands witness to a confrontation between play and patriarchy. In this essay, Tanmay paints the picture of rural Bihar and narrates the consequences of joy (and a frisbee) finding itself in the wrong hands.
Darkness has been the grist to many poets’ mills, the emptiness that allows stars to shine and often the site of cinematic horror films. But what does the dark reveal about how we live?
This is Part IV of a series on the psyche and sexuality, based on the author’s research, reflections and analysis. The writer deconstructs the sexual fantasy that seems to defy all logic, and yet somehow makes sense. She also meditates on the feminist position on psychoanalysis.
Maxi has recently purchased a vibrator and she cannot wait to put it to use. As the series finale, we present to you a classic girl-meets-machine romantic comedy featuring Yours Truly Tom.
