A reading list for #DisabilityPrideMonth

The prevailing ableist mindset inflicts a particular kind of violence on a disabled body. British-Indian filmmaker Waris Hussein’s 1997 film, Sixth Happiness, was based on Kanga’s novel and had the author playing the lead role. Homeless: Growing Up Lesbian and Dyslexic in India by K Vaishali Yoda Press x Simon & Schuster, 2023 Winner of this year’s Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar in the English language, K Vaishali’s Homeless is a welcome addition to the ever-expanding shelf devoted to Indian LGBTQIA+ literature. So far, except for academic books and same-sex-themed literary works by pioneers like Suniti Namjoshi, Ruth Vanita, and Maya Sharma, no Indian author has centralised lesbian experiences like Vaishali has done. Meru by SB Divya Hachette, 2023 Hugo and Nebula Award-nominated author of Machinehood, SB Divya — a speculative fiction writer, editor, and engineer — was rendered disabled due to myalgic encephalomyelitis /chronic fatigue syndrome, a neuroimmune disease that was triggered by Long Covid.