Westland Books recently marked the Mumbai launch of Love, Sex and India: An Agents of Ishq Anthology, edited by Paromita Vohra, with an evening at Title Waves Bookstore in Bandra. The event brought together a room full of readers, contributors, and longtime followers of Agents of Ishq for a warm, wide-ranging celebration of the book.
The evening's centrepiece was a conversation between Paromita Vohra and actor Richa Chadha, who has long been an outspoken voice on questions of gender, cinema, and culture. The two spoke frankly and with good humour about what it means to talk about love and desire in India today, what gets left out of mainstream narratives, and why an anthology like this one matters.
A couple of contributors also read from their own pieces, and hearing the stories aloud, in the voices of the people who wrote them, was one of the quieter highlights of the evening. Speaking at the event Paromita Vohra said, "Agents of Ishq started as a small project, but we received so many authentic submissions in a short period.
People adopted this portal as their own and turned it into what it is today. I am glad that tonight we got to hear some of those voices in the room where they belong." Love, Sex and India: An Agents of Ishq Anthology brings together writing that looks at intimacy, pleasure, heartbreak, and longing from perspectives that are rarely centred in Indian public life. It is published by Westland Books and is available now.
About Westland Books
Westland Books is an award-winning Indian publisher with a diverse list spanning popular and literary fiction, business, politics, biography, spirituality, popular science, health and self-help. Its key imprints include Context (award-winning literary fiction and non-fiction), Ekada (contemporary Indian-language writing and translations), Tranquebar (new fiction from the subcontinent), Westland Sport, Westland Business, Westland Non-Fiction, and Red Panda (children's books).
In 2023, Westland launched Indie Press, a self-publishing imprint, and in 2024 introduced IF, a list dedicated to speculative fiction. Westland also collaborates with Pratilipi Comics to bring compelling graphic narratives to readers. Most recently, it launched QD (Queer Directions), an imprint championing LGBTQIA+ voices across fiction, non-fiction and poetry.