Swati Sudarsan
Reading when I'm not writing - @booksnailmail for book gems, book drops, & diverse recs
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The Simple Foundation for a Complex Skincare Routine
My myriad skin issues, from hyperpigmentation to adult whiteheads, had come to a boil in the months before my wedding. With the additional stresses of planning, I had entered a nasty cycle of breaking out, picking, scarring, and repeat. My scars were deep, and I was terrified that they would be permanent. I understood that I could wear makeup at my wedding to cover it up, but no amount of makeup could hide the texture issues, dry patches, and raised scars. I knew that I had only a few months to get something to work.
Swati SudarsanPublished 2 months ago in Blush
In a Drought of his Existence
Dear Ayingeramba (maternal grandmother), The whole world shut down this time, last year. It fell apart on the anniversary of his loss, as if it finally caught up to us. As if synchronizing, a beat late, with the drought of his existence.
Swati SudarsanPublished 6 months ago in Families
Detransition, Baby is already my favorite book of 2021
The perfect book does not exis--- *me slapping you with this book* Detransition, Baby is funny, riveting, and expansive - it cares about the cis gaze without catering to it. Peters dedicates the book to “divorced cis women” because at the heart of this novel is the idea that failing at womanhood is a brand, if not a sisterhood (cisterhood? - lol?)
Swati SudarsanPublished 7 months ago in Humans
A Lineage of Hometown Dilutions
See here is a home. I did not call it home until I left it. When I left, I saw how the walls came first, and then we set the bones. The bones are imports, spices, and incense - they make coming into our home a sensory experience, a hometown-ception. The hometown we are in holds a home, and that home is a microcosm of a hometown we left. We are legion, who come from a lineage of hometown dilutions.
Swati SudarsanPublished 8 months ago in Humans
Wellness 2021: How My Indian Wedding Inspired Me to Decolonize Beauty Shopping
2020 was the year the Internet collective adopted #ShopSmall and #ShopLocal as the unifying rallying cry. However, seeing these hashtags everywhere pushed me to think about what #ShopSmall as a blanket statement actually accomplishes?
Swati SudarsanPublished 8 months ago in Marriage
Wanna be on Top?
Tyra Banks - a household name. Easy to love, easy to hate. However you feel about her, she is undeniably a powerhouse. I discovered Tyra in early high school, when I got my first laptop (a Dell that rivals the weight of medical textbooks). Before then, we had been a strictly no-cable family. This meant watching lots of PBS, my brain forming new synaptic connections due to educational shows thinly veiled as entertainment until 4 pm, when the channel transitioned to adult programming. Finding America's Next Top Model on a free stream site felt illicit back then - I would watch under the covers for hours after my parents had gone to bed. They always wondered why their 14-year-old had dark circles.
Swati SudarsanPublished 8 months ago in Viva
