We have been featuring the best writers from our writers’ community for their committed contribution to FII, making it what it is today. FII would not exist if not for the passionate and loyal feminist writers’ community that we have steadily been building over the last few years. This January, we feature Azdhan.
Azdhan (he/him) is the Founder & Chief-Editor of OnlyShorts and a full-time Film Critic and Chief-Editor at TeluguFunda. He is also a frequent freelancer for Feminism In India. He also works as a Public Relations Executive for a few Canadian clients. When he is not working on anything, you’ll find him working on something else. While the work-in-progress draft of his novel on urban loneliness lies useless in his drive, he loves to have random useless long-run conversations with a very few friends of his life.
Sone of his popular articles include ‘Girls Will Be Girls’: The Zeal And The Jealousy Of The Coming-Of-Age, ‘Santosh’ (2024) Review: Powerful Mirroring Of Darkest Realities In India and ‘Emergency’: A Balanced Bias And Confused Chaos Of Naive Vision among others.
FII: Tell us a little about yourself and what you do
Well, I was named Azdhan. And, that became my identity.
For most of the time, I would not have any idea what I am exactly doing despite having (almost) all the clarity. As the imposter syndrome keeps infesting me, I try to do multiple things trying to find the perfect match for myself. Most of the time, the perfect match for myself can be found writing something.
So, I settled as a professional writer for now. Writing about what? Cinema, in particular; and art, at large. I also work as a Public Relations Executive for Canadian clients. I had also worked with various NGOs including Guardians of Dreams, Balavikasa and worked for projects funded by UNICEF and ICSSR. Apart from these, I am also a non-commissioned writer writing my novel that has been going since time immemorial. Yes, I am also a pro-procrastinator!
FII: How did you become a part of the FII writer family?
I was walking out with my thoughts after watching Vasan Bala’s Jigra. I found very strong similarities between Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s Ranvijay Singh in Animal and Jigra’s Satyabhama Anand. They both had alpha traits and loved their families unconditionally. (You can read more about it here.) I wanted to share the strange synaptic connection of alpha-ness in both characters that I discovered with the world.
The first relevant and accessible publication that came to mind was Feminism In India. FII has been the frontrunner in feminist-led discourse in India. So, I wanted to write for them. Therefore, that was the start of my freelancing stint with Feminism In India. Till now, it’s been a smooth sailing experience with FII.
FII: How and when did you become a feminist?
I think it was during my 8th standard. We were being whipped by our Kerala-based Social Studies teacher in our small school in a small town of Andhra Pradesh. The boys were being beaten on their butts. But, my female classmates had their unfair share of whippings on their hands. After a few weeks, I stood up and just questioned the unequal treatment of boys and girls–I wanted equality, in the naivety of my rage, even in the crime of beating the students!
I know this might not be a true “feminist” stance. But, I truly believe in unconditional equality among all the genders and all sexual orientations. Anyway, my voicing out of my values of equality started there– at my rebellious age and rage. And, I wouldn’t want to be associated with any ideology. I am a mixed bag of ideologies. I sympathise with the cause of Naxals, yet I believe in Milton Friedman’s ideas on capitalism– if not Ayn Rand’s. So, am I a feminist? I don’t know. I hate labeling. But, do I have feministic values? Surely, I know I do.
FII: Which issues within feminism are close to your heart?
Sexual harassment, especially the rape culture. You see the word? “Rape Culture“. How did rapes became culture? How can rapes become a culture?!
Rapes against women is something that often comes in my reviews as well. (One example here.) I still don’t understand why men rape, especially in India– where the sexual urge itself is not the primal motive. It’s something else, much worse than animalism. I don’t understand it.
Apart from the sexual harassment, the careless and purposeless loitering of women (the lack of it) bothers me. We– the men– take pride in going out for a chai (tea) randomly without any purpose, just to chit-chat about random things of everyday life. You might have seen the reels, haven’t you? This rarely happens in the case of women. Women need a purpose to go out. I don’t get it and I don’t accept it.
FII: What is your favourite piece on this site that you have written, and your favourite piece on this site that you have read? Why did they strike you?
Ummm.. tough one. I really don’t have a favourite piece of my own. But, I liked this portion of my review of Kangana Ranaut’s Emergency. I like to play with words, make them more memorable. I like to weave the literariness into my film criticism. I am still trying, and will master it oneday!
I really don’t have a favorite piece on FII as well. But, the one article that made me reflect very much was this article on Kamathipura sex workers written by scholar Khushboo Srivastava. Long back, I was going through the archives of Feminism in India as part of my research process for a fictional story that I am (still) working on. This offered me nothing new that I didn’t already know. But, what this article did to me was to compose the arguments and conflicts (like sex work as ‘crime’ vs sex work as a ‘right’ etc). That’s what good writing does to you. It makes you connect the dots, the dots you already had noticed but never thought could be connected.
FII: What do you like to do when not writing about gender and social justice?
I don’t wake up and sit in front of my loving laptop to write about gender and social justice. But, whatever I write might have the elements of gender and social justice. Because, I believe I have internalised those thoughts as my philosophy of life. So, I let my subconscious part of my brain and my value system take the front seat while I am writing.
And, if I am not writing, I would be either reading a book on my kindle and taking notes meticulously. Or, I’ll be watching something or just surfing the internet trying to clear my heavy load of unread newsletters– and always failing to do as I would quickly fall into some rabbit hole and be lost there almost forever.
FII: What do you like about FII and our work?
Its historical value. If you can go ahead into the future and look back at the present, or the recent past, you’ll have a very varied mixed bag of voices that spoke largely about feminism, particularly in India. To take one topic called Feminism and not just go deep, but also wide, is not an easy task.
But, hey! FII didn’t do it alone. I love the way how FII built a community of readers and writers around it. I have been following FII since my college days. I believe this community building happened so organically. Again, that is also not an easy task to accomplish. FII didn’t grow alone in these years. It took the readers along with them as more and more writers were transforming the publication into a platform.
FII: What more would you like to see from us?
As I just said, FII is going all as deep and as wide as it can. Going both wide and deep is equally important. I really have nothing much to comment on their way of doing things. They are really doing good.
However, I can see a scope for a new vertical at FII. It’s a fictional world of Feminism In India. I see quite a few aspiring writers who can–and maybe, want to– write a fictional story someday. And, make that story a cinema someday. Just like how TVF is making fairly successful student-centric long-form cinema (web series), FII can also utilise the wonderful medium of visual language for the cause of Feminism in India.
Albeit, fact might be stranger than fiction. But still, fiction is more powerful than a fact.
FII thanks Azdhan for his timely and valuable contributions. We are incredibly grateful to have him as a part of our writers’ community and appreciate him for the deeply informative writing.
About the author(s)
Feminism In India is an award-winning digital intersectional feminist media organisation to learn, educate and develop a feminist sensibility and unravel the F-word among the youth in India.
