We presented the best writers from the community of our writers for their dedicated contribution to FII and make it what it is today. Fii would not exist unless the passionate and loyal feminist writer community that we have steadily built in recent years. In January we show Azdhan.
Azdhan (he/he) is the founder and chief actor of Only shorts And a full-time film critic and chief actor at Telugufunda. He is also a frequent freelancer for feminism in India. He also works as a PR manager for some Canadian customers. If he doesn’t work on anything, you will find that he is working on something else. While the workplace of his novel about urban loneliness is useless, he loves to have random useless long -term conversations with very few friends of his life.
Simply include its popular article “Girls will be girls”: the zeal and jealousy of the coming-of-agePresent ‘Santosh’ (2024) Review: Mighty reflection of the darkest realities in India And ‘Emergency’: a balanced bias and confused chaos naive perspective under other.
Fii: Tell us a little about yourself and what you do
Well, I was called Azdhan. And that was my identity.
Most of the time I would have no idea what exactly I was doing, although I have (almost) all the clarity. While Imposter syndrome always fears me, I try to do several things to find the perfect agreement for myself. Most of the time, the perfect game can be written for myself.
So for the time being, I have settled as a professional writer. Write about what? Especially cinema; and art, overall. I also work as a PR manager for Canadian customers. I had also worked with various NGOs, including Guardians of Dreams, Balavikasa and for projects financed by UNICEF and ICSSR. Apart from these, I am also a writer that has not been commissioned who has always written my novel. Yes, I am also a Pro procratinator!
FII: How did you become part of the FII wrote family?
I went out with my thoughts after seeing Vasan Balas Jigra. I found very strong similarities between Sandeep Reddy Vangas Ranvijay Singh in Animal and Jigras Satyabhama Anand. Both had alpha properties 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 occurred to me was feminism in India. FII was the leader in the feminist discourse in India. So I wanted to write for her. Therefore, this was the beginning of my freelance stay with feminism in India. So far it has been a smooth sail experience with FII.
FII: How and when did you become a feminist?
I think it was during my 8th standards. We were flogged by our Kerala, which is based in Kerala in our small school in a small town of Andhra Pradesh. The boys were beaten on their butt. But my classmates had their unfair proportion of strokes in their hands. After a few weeks I got up and only questioned the unequal treatment of boys and girls – I wanted equality in the naivety of my anger, even in crime to beat the students!
I know that this may not be a real “feminist” attitude. But I really believe in unconditional equality among all sexes and all sexual orientations. Anyway, my mood from my values of equality began there – at my rebellious age and my anger. And I would not want to be associated with an ideology. I am a mixed bag of ideologies. I sympathize with the matter of Naxal, but I believe in Milton Friedman’s ideas for capitalism – if not in Ayn Rand. Am I a feminist? I don’t know. I hate to mark it. But do I have feminist values? Certainly I know that I am doing it.
FII: What problems in feminism are close to your heart?
Sexual harassment, especially the rape culture. Do you see the word? “Rape culture“. How did rape to culture? How can rape become a culture?!
Rape to women are often associated in my reviews. (An example Here.) I still don’t understand why men, especially in India, rape – where the sexual urge itself is not the original motive. It’s something differentMuch worse than animalism. I don’t understand.
Apart from the sexual harassment, the careless and pointless leaks of women interfere with me (the lack of it). We are proud to make a chai (tea) by chance without purpose, just to switch about random things in everyday life. You may have seen the roles, don’t you? This rarely happens in women. Women need a purpose to go out. I don’t understand and do not accept it.
FII: What is your favorite piece on this page you wrote and your favorite piece on this website you have read? Why did you beat you?
Ummm .. hard. I really don’t have my own popular piece. But I liked The Part of my evaluation by Kangana Ranaut’s emergency. I like to play with words and make them unforgettable. I like to integrate literary in my film criticism. I’m still trying and will master ONEDAY!
I really don’t have a favorite piece about Fii. But the only article that reflected me very much was This article about Kamathipura sex workers, written by the scholar Khushboo Srivastava. For a long time I went through the archives of feminism in India as part of my research process for a fictional history that I (still) worked on. This offered me nothing new that I didn’t know yet. But this article did me to compose the arguments and conflicts (such as sex work as a “crime” against sex work as “law” etc.). That is what writes you well. It makes them connect the points, the points they have already noticed, but never thought that they could be connected.
FII: What do you like to do if you do not write about gender and social justice?
I do not wake up and sit in front of my loving laptop to write about gender and social justice. But whatever I write could have the elements of gender and social justice. Because I think I have internalized these thoughts as my philosophy of life. So I let my unconscious part of my brain and my value system take the front seat while I write.
And if I don’t write, I would either read a book on my Kindle and make aisribric notes. Or I will watch something or surf the Internet and try to clarify my large amount of unread newsletters – and always not to do what I would quickly fall into a rabbit hole and would almost be lost there forever.
FII: What do you like about FII and our work?
Its historical value. If you go into the future and look back on the present or the recent past, you will have a very diverse mixed bag that was largely about feminism, especially in India. To take a topic called feminism and not only go deep, but also broadis not an easy task.
But, hey! Fii didn’t do it alone. I love the way FII built a community of readers and writers around them. I’ve been following Fii since my college days. I believe that this joint structure happened so organically. This is also not an easy task. Fii was not alone in these years. The readers took with them when more and more authors turned the publication into a platform.
FII: What do you want to see more of us?
As I just said, Fii goes as deep and wide as possible. Going far and deep is just as important. I really don’t have much to comment on how they do things. They are doing really well.
However, I can see a scope for a new vertical at FII. It is a fictional world of feminism in India. I see some aspiring writers who one day can write a fictional story – and maybe want -. And one day make this story a cinema. Just like TVF makes quite successful student-centered long-form cinemas (web series), Fii can also use the wonderful medium of visual language for the matter of feminism in India.
Although the fact may be strangers as fiction. Nevertheless, fiction is more powerful than a fact.
Fii thanks Azdhan for his timely and valuable contributions. We are incredibly grateful to have him as part of our writers’ community and appreciate him for the deeply informative letter.
Feminism in India is an award-winning digital intersectional feminist media organization in order to learn, raise and develop feminist sensitivity and to struggle the F-word among young people in India.
