We don’t have good documentation yet, but how many Indians struggle with eating disorders or body dysmorphia? Particularly young women and girls, who are exposed to a number of cruel comments and tremendous body shaming from an early age.

‘Why aren’t you eating, beta’ hand in hand with ‘getting chubby...you need to watch that weight.’ Accompanied with an invasive pinch of our bodies. We have about a 1.5 kg range in which the auntiyon leave us alone. Otherwise we are deemed too skinny or too fat to be pleasing to other people’s eyes.

I’ve always been open about the fact that I struggled with bulimia for a time. I think I’ve been lucky in that I have a sense of entitlement- the entitlement to not quietly accept rude or personal comments on my body type! I hope that we can create a climate in which everybody feels that sense of entitlement. Our bodies belong not to the community, but to ourselves.