Writing on a queer, neurodivergent life

On the face of it, Homeless: Growing Up Lesbian And Dyslexic In India is a memoir. Written by author and diversity, equity and inclusion expert K. Vaishali and published by Simon & Schuster and Yoda Press, it’s a book readers need to add to their Lesbian Visibility Week TBR pile. Written in a stark, spare, unflinching style, it recounts several months of the author’s life in a hostel at the University of Hyderabad, and everything that leads up to it, including the real-life experiences of discrimination she faced as a lesbian woman and as a person with dyslexia. One thinks of her discomfort and embarrassment at how little she knows about caste politics, something many readers may share: “I should really stop taking myself seriously when I don’t know of suffering outside of my own loneliness.” There is an uncomfortable sense that she is putting the reader in the position of judge and jury for her own actions and asking them to decide on the morality of her actions on her behalf, possibly to absolve her or even themselves as they recognise themselves in her actions. By not shying away from describing her toughest experiences, especially those with her invisible disabilities, such as dyslexia, the author warns us that we never know what a seemingly able-bodied person might be going through.