“Taking Form” w/ Punya Rajput

Continuing on with introducing you to the writers behind the new Chai with Rai series An Ode: Reframing the Classics- welcoming to the Chai room Punya Rajput.

She wrote a short story titled The Sabhā No Longer Stands which reimagines Draupadi, not as a divine heroine, but as a woman confronting the shame, jealousy, and emotional labor imposed on her by a heteropatriarchal world. Through a deeply affective conversation with Krishna, she lays bare the moral contradictions, expectations, and embodied violence present in society. Her body becomes a site of symbolic control, her desires policed, her identity fragmented.