25/09/2026
“I was not a girl who wanted pink. I was a girl who wanted to be left alone with mud.
Somewhere along the way I found the feminine in me. Late, and on my own terms, which is possibly the only way it stays yours.
But what I keep borrowing from that child isn't her taste. It's her indifference. The specific freedom of not yet knowing you are being looked at.
Between then and now, dressing became a negotiation. A colour is too much. A shape is not for your age. You learn to pre-empt the room.
This year I'm un-learning the room. The Soraya dress, from Indigene's Sukoon — textured cotton, pintucks, a thin hand block printed gold line that only shows when the light asks. The one old thing on me is an anklet I've had since I was small. It doesn't go near my ankle anymore. It goes in my hair. I like fitting things where they don't fit.
What did you wear when you were small and unbothered?”
- Shweta Mukherjee
