Intense but ultimately compassionate, even hopeful. Award-winning author PRETI TANEJA pens an advice column written as a prose poem, where a daughter finds the words to tell her mother her story of abuse.
Treat her kindly, wait until after dinner. She may be tired, her fingers curling. Her beloved palms the only balm you’ve ever allowed to touch your skin. (But do not hold her hands, for your own safety.) Now is the time for singularity. It begins with this: watch for the light in her eyes as she looks at you. Around the room, recall yourself, as a child, from the time before. As a child. There was the place you fell once, dancing with her to ABBA, and split the corner of your lip. There, in that corner you and your sister made a den of cushions and fell asleep for what might have been one hundred years. She left you there, left home. You woke in a strange night room. Knowing that: something had happened.
Older, now, there was the time, that when mother was away (for a birth, a marriage, missing a death) you dropped the cherry from your first joint, and he covered it up. It was your fault, you thought. Which might not now be true. It remained, a hole burned in softness, unremarked upon as you aged. You believe she never noticed.
Denne historien er fra September 2018-utgaven av VOGUE India.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent ? Logg på
Denne historien er fra September 2018-utgaven av VOGUE India.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
Current affairs
Elif Shafak’s work abounds with references, memories and a deep love of Istanbul. She talks to AANCHAL MALHOTRA about the significance of home and those who shape our recollections of the past
A drop of nostalgia
A whiff of Chanel N°5 L'Eau acts as a memory portal for TARINI SOOD, reminding her of the constant tussle between who we are and who we hope to become
Wild thing's
Zebras hold emerald-cut diamonds, panthers morph into ring-bracelets that move and a turtle escapes to become a brooch -Cartier's high jewellery collection Nature Sauvage is a playground of the animal kingdom.
Preity please
Two surprise red-carpet appearances and a movie announcement have everyone obsessing over Preity Zinta. The star behind the aughties’ biggest hits talks film wardrobe favourites, social media and keeping it real.
Honeymoon travels
Destination locked, visas acquired, bookings madewhat could stand between a newly-wed couple and pure, unadulterated conjugal bliss in some distant, romantic land? A lot, finds JYOTI KUMARI. Styled by LONGHCHENTI HANSO LONGCHAR
La La Land
They complete each other’s sentences, make music together and get lost on the streets of Paris—this is the love story of Aditi Rao Hydari and Siddharth.
A SHORE THING
Annalea Barreto and Mavrick Cardoz eschewed the big fat Goan wedding for a DIY, intimate, seaside affair that was true to their individual selves.
7 pheras around the buffet
Celebrating the only real love affair each wedding season: me and a feast.
Saving AI do
From getting ChatGPT to plan your wedding itinerary to designing your moodboard on Midjourneytech is officially third-wheeling the big fat Indian wedding
Love bomb me, please
Between breadcrumbing, cushioning and situationships, the language of romance seems to be lost in translation. SAACHI GUPTA asks, where has the passion gone?