Anushree’s Strong & Sensitive Writing Encourages Women To Self Reflect

This June we celebrated twelve years of Women’s Web, a community built by you – our readers and contributors. 

On this joyful occasion we present to you a stellar line up of our most popular and beloved authors and their most widely read contributions. Happy reading! #12YearsOfWomensWeb

Anushree is one of our most well read authors who has strong opinions about what’s right and wrong. Her writing reflects depths of thinking and is deeply rich, layered and bitingly feminist.

Her personal accounts are some of her best pieces and in many ways, Anushree’s writing shows that she is the proverbial Phoenix who rises, no matter what!

On her love for reading and favourite authors

Anushree is a voracious reader and this reflects in her beautifully nuanced writing.  “Mine is a world first of reading. It is a world of dreams, ideas, opinions and lots of learning and unlearning. As a child, I read a bit. Mostly contemporary literature. Then, I stopped reading for a few years for many reasons. 

She tells us about a few of her favourite authors of many. “Haruki Murakami pushed me back into it! The fluidity and surrealism of his words and the magical realism in it (something very novel to me) brought with it a deep sense of acknowledgement that I was missing something sorely in my life. Later, Virginia Woolf and Sylvia Plath through their poems and prose showed me both – the delight and despair of being a woman and a broken one at that. Stephen King’s “On Writing” changed the way I looked at writers and writing. 

Leo Tolstoy and his musings in “War and Peace” I still carry with me. Maya Angelou and Toni Morrison showed me how deeply I can love and commit, and shaped my thoughts in a way that is very tough to describe here. 

Albert Camus shaped every existentialist thought I have had inside me and I am grateful to him for he made me aware of how we are nothing in the grand scheme of the cosmos. Because everything we feel will eventually end up in the soil and hence, it is essential to feel deeply while we are at it.”

Never miss real stories from India's women.

Register Now

Anushree grew up with an eclectic collection of books at home which influenced her personal ideas and writing style. “Our personal library at home boasts of around 1200+ books and still counting. The genres we have range from contemporary fiction, fantasy, gender, science-fiction, historical fiction, magical realism, comics, graphic novels, autobiographies of leaders, actors and authors, filmographies, poetries, essays, Soviet Era books, children’s books, Reader’s Digest and National Geographic books, including several coffee table and food books. 

We have a special fascination for banned books. When we hear a book is banned because something in it offended someone, we immediately buy it!”

A love for writing 

Anushree, an erudite introvert at heart, loves the world of writing, reading and feminism. Women’s Web came into Ansuhree’s life when she was a casual Facebook poster or, in her words, a “Facebook shitposter, who did not even know the meaning of feminism, or how to pronounce “patriarchy” despite living it each day.” 

“I wrote my first published fictional story on Women’s Web when I was still not out of J. M. Coetzee’s “Disgrace”. The rhythm stayed in my head and the story churned itself out, morbid and dry. Sandhya, the senior editor and community manager of Women’s Web, and I bonded over our mutual feminist philosophies and our contempt for daily misogyny.

Understanding feminism, its various theories, the different ways in which misogyny plays out, the intersectionality movement, anti-violence, anti-capitalism and anti-natalism as a feminist stance, has enriched my vocabulary and thought process to a very large extent since then.” 

Anushree since then has been using her voice to speak on social issues. “I have been extensively reading gender and diversity for the past 7 years now. I use my voice to speak on social issues, especially the ones closer to my heart. I believe art influences life and vice versa. I believe in critical analysis of all art forms, from the social-economical-political lens because it is essential.”

A virtual safe space 

Anushree has created a safe virtual community of around 11000 people that discuss a wide range of topics such as gender, social, political issues, sexual harassment, inclusivity, inclusivity, parenting, child sexual abuse and mental health. 

“As and when it is possible, we hold discourse and readings across various topics and it is immensely educational just to see stuff and knowledge people can bring onto the table if only we are prepared to listen attentively and empathise. 

Over the course, I have learnt and I am still learning that speaking about it is just the first step. Next comes actively encouraging representation, creating a dialogue, building means of participation.”

Using her privilege to uplift others 

“We privileged cis-gendered upper caste heterosexual people sit on the top of the pyramid of privilege. Using it to create a space for someone not as privileged as me, gender-wise or class-wise, is what I strive for daily.

I am fortunate that both my passions – reading/writing and working on social issues – go hand in hand with the introvert that I am. Reading inculcates curiosity. 

Writing helps me articulate my feelings; it helps me tell others the things I read, it also invites people to come and speak to me. And believe me, there is no world better than a world where there is no “other”. This is my small contribution to unothering, rather insignificant, but highly satisfying. 

On fighting mental fatigue 

Other than being an amazingly sensitive writer, Anushree is also a banker by day. The work and stresses have taken a sort of toll of late. 

“It has been about 2 years now that I have a mental fatigue – a burnout that disallows everything else but to function just bare minimum. 

For now, I work at the bank during the day and try to sleep without nightmares at night. The reading and writing has taken a backseat and I am hoping to find back a renewed enthusiasm for it soon. This time, perhaps, as a changed person. A more mature person with boundaries, with priorities, and with a more open outlook towards disagreements, without compromising on the basic tenets with which I live my life. A perpetual work in progress…”

Here’s wishing Anushree the best and hoping she overcomes writer’s block and gets back to writing with us soon! Anushree’s strong, sensitive writings encourage women to self-reflect and express their own inner voice. 

Her top post with she is one where she shares her love for cooking and busts certain myths about cooking being a feminine activity Cooking Does Not Come Pre-Installed In A Woman’s DNA 

Her other popular posts

• A hard hitting piece on her experiences being bullied in school and how she chose to rise about it and find inner strength I Am Not A Whore, Just A Free Woman!

• Helping trauma survivors heal in Dear Survivor, If Your Rage Helps You Deal With Your Pain, So Be It!

• A sensitive book review of No Nation for Women, a reportage on rapes in IndiaThis Is No Nation For Women; Can You Imagine The Violence In These Women’s Lives?

• An in your face rebuttal of the accusation women today face for being too opinionated, bold and badly behaved in general  “Today’s Girls Are So Badly Behaved” – Is The Problem With Them Or With You?

• A hopeful piece on how trauma survivors can heal and blossom again And Then My Dear, Despite It All, You Shall Blossom Again…

• A brief account of the misogyny she experienced at the hands of her ex boyfriend My Ex Told Me That I’d Be ‘Allowed’ To Visit My Mom Once In Two Months

• On the deep conditioning women go through since childhood to be more pliable and tolerant wives, girlfriends, mothers  Women Are Not Born With Submission And Tolerance Coded In Their Genes. Certainly Not Me!

• An amazingly well researched list compiled by Anushree on Indian epics retold A MONSTER List Of Women Writers Rewriting Indian Epics, Re-Defining Familiar Characters And Narratives

• On why “feminist paranoia” is needed for a better, more equal world for all genders Accusing Us Of Feminist Paranoia? Here’s Why It Is Necessary!

• On how prospective husbands and their families set unrealistic and sexist expectations for the bride to be Dear Prospective Mom-In-Law, You Just Lost The Chance To Have An Awesome Daughter In Law! 

Comments