Jan 10 2026 to Jan 10 2026 6:30 p.m.

Where

Bangalore International Centre

7 4th Main Rd, Stage 2, Domlur 560071

Event Description

Sunil Mohan’s memoir is a deeply reflective account of transition that moves beyond the familiar arc of before-and-after. Writing with honesty and quiet courage, Sunil traces a lifelong knowing of self alongside a persistent questioning of gender, masculinity, and belonging. As he transitions from being read as female to male, the book resists easy definitions, asking how one might claim manhood without surrendering to narrow, socially sanctioned models of masculinity. Rather than centring pain alone, the narrative turns outward: to the queer, trans, anti-caste, feminist, and people’s movements that have shaped Sunil’s political and emotional world. It reflects on friendship, resistance, silence, healing, and the strength found in sharing our struggle. In this conversation, Sunil Mohan will be joined by contemporary inventive Dalit writer Dr. Gogu Shyamala and Assistant Professor at Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit, Reshma Bharadwaj to reflect on the book’s themes, the politics of becoming, and the quiet pride of living with integrity. Urvashi Butalia, founder of Zubaan books will throw light on feminist publishing around queer histories and narratives. This book emerged as part of a research study on ‘De-Constructing Masculinities,’ by maraa, a media and arts collective, supported by Edelgive Foundation. In collaboration with: Speakers Sunil Mohan Author Sunil Mohan once led the Kerala State Women’s Cricket Team as its captain. He later completed a diploma in electrical engineering and then worked with various NGOs that advocate for the rights of marginalised sexualities and genders. Sunil documented the oral histories of LGBTI people across South India as a CCDS Open Space Pune fellow, collecting videos from 24 individuals representing marginalised identities. Alongside Rumi Harish, he initiated a study on non-discrimination at Alternative Law Forum (ALF). He co-authored the report ‘Conversations on Caste Discrimination in South India,’ conducted after over 95 conversations throughout the region. Sunil identifies as a Trans Man. In 2018, he co-founded Raahi, an organisation dedicated to the rights of marginalised genders and sexualities. In 2024, he received the Kamala Bhasin Award for his contributions to gender and sexuality rights. Gogu Shyamala Writer Dr. Gogu Shyamala is one of the foremost contemporary inventive Dalit writers in the country. She holds a PhD in Dalit Women’s Biographies, Gender and Caste in Telangana from the English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU) Hyderabad. Her collection of short stories in English ‘Father may be an elephant and mother only a small basket but,’ … is a landmark in Indian literature. It has also been translated into German and French. She has produced an anthology Nallapoddu (Black Dawn) which is a collection of 53 Dalit women’s writings from 1921 to 2002, from across Telegu speaking states which received critical acclaim in the literary world. She also wrote a biography of the first Dalit woman legislator, Cabinet member, and endowment Minister in the former state of Andhra Pradesh. She is also the co-editor of Oxford published Anthology of Dalit Writing. Her writings have also been incorporated in higher education syllabus for Indian states and for some foreign countries. Her writings have also been translated into Indian languages such as Kanada, Tamil, Malayalam, Hindi, Urdu, Bengali and Gujarati. At present, she is working as an independent scholar, writing speculative fiction and magic realism based on lived experiences of excluded communities and their knowledge of the production of agricultural, medicinal plants, and literature, history, oral stories and songs and mythology. Reshma Bharadwaj Assistant Professor, Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit, Kalady Reshma Bharadwaj is currently serving as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Social Work at Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit, Kalady. Her research interests include social movements, feminist engagements with queer theory, sexuality and gender, developmental marginalization, and criminal justice social work. She completed her PhD in the Department of Social Anthropology at the University of Bergen, Norway. Reshma was also affiliated with Sahayatrika, a support organization for queer and Trans persons in Kerala. Her published works include Mithykalakkappuram: Homosexuality in Kerala (in Malayalam). Death, Friendship and migration of Queer people: a revisit of the countryside of Kerala and translation of the book Romantic Encounters of a Sex Worker into English among other articles and books. Urvashi Butalia Feminist Publisher & Writer Urvashi Butalia is a feminist publisher and writer. Co-founder of India’s first feminist publishing house, Kali for Women, she set up Zubaan, another feminist imprint, when Kali shut down in 2003. She has many decades of involvement in the women’s movement in India and writes and publishes widely on issues related to women and gender. Among her best known publications is the award-winning oral history of Partition, The Other Side of Silence: Voices from the Partition of India. Her book on the life of her hijra friend, Mona Ahmed, is forthcoming and she is currently working on a book on the women’s movement in India.