Personal Essay - The Locavore

Personal Essay

‘I was made to feel a different kind of shame’

Anjana Shekar
November 24, 2025

Breastfeeding has not been an easy experience for Anjana Shekar. From nipples being squeezed by strangers to home remedies to increase milk production, she writes on the challenges of being a new mother.

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Personal Essay

Drinking Fish, Pinching Crabs

Vijeta Kumar
July 4, 2025

Illustration by Reshu Singh (@ReshuSingh on Instagram).

My mother knew where to pinch a crab to unravel its innards.

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Personal Essay

Kheer and Curfew

Soibam Haripriya
April 10, 2025

Kombirei or Manipuri iris, the leaves of which are illustrated here, grow in Haripriya's parents' home garden. Creative by Steve Hurst via Wikimedia commons. Illustration by Ayushi Roy.

For Soibam Haripriya, childhood foods look like her mother’s grief.

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Personal Essay

Rail Gaadi, Rail Gaadi: My Experiences with Railway Food

Aarthi Parthasarathy
November 26, 2024

Having spent much of her childhood on trains, Aarthi Parthasarthy,a self-proclaimed “railway kid”,reflects on her family’s favourite stations for tasty food, her father’s knowledge of the intricate catering system, and just how much train food has changed since she was little.

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Personal Essay

A thousand kilometres from Gaya, I learned to love the taste of its baskarel

Priyanka Bhadani
September 24, 2024

Baskarel smells strong,sharp, pungent, earthy,when soaked in water. When ground and deep-fried upon mixing with gram flour, it’s crunchy, salty, a little spicy. Priyanka Bhadani reveals her younger self’s loathing,and now fondness,for the distinct flavours of baskarel.

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