Varisha Tariq

Condé Nast Traveller India • 27th May 2025

Eight years photographing the Bara Imambara, in 10 stunning images

The most defining silhouette on the city’s skyline, Lucknow’s Bara Imambara is a beloved city landmark. Its history roots itself in the generosity of Nawab Asaf-Ud Daula. A monument, unlike any other, was constructed not to demarcate the period or its glory, but rather to provide employment to the famine stricken population of Awadh in the 1780s. For locals, the monument is a symbol: of hope, legacy and tenacity. One photographer’s deep and enduring love for the monument led him to photograph th...

Condé Nast Traveller India • 2nd February 2025

12 places to visit in Lucknow that are not tourist traps

My home, Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh popularly known as the city of Nawabs, is a charming city that is often overlooked on the tourist circuit even though it is only three hours away from the Taj Mahal and a few hours away from Delhi. A city with a culture defined by its leisurely attitude, Mughlai cuisine, chikankari work, and literature, Lucknow is a sufi poet's dream. In the heart of Lucknow lies Hazratganj and from here, if we were to take a walk to Rumi Gate, we would be eclipsed...

Condé Nast Traveller India • 31st January 2025

In Lucknow, literature is a love language

How deep can a love for a language and its literature last, when the world is closing in on you? “Please come back to run Danish Mahal, and please never let it ever house anything apart from Urdu,” Naseem Ahmad Sahab told his youngest son, 35-year-old Naeem Ahmad, who was preparing to take on the tourism industry. The year was 2006, and Naeem made a promise to his father on his deathbed. Danish Mahal is Lucknow’s oldest Urdu bookstore. Located in Aminabad, it was built in 1989, and is the Ahmad...

HARD COPY • 9th December 2024

The Beauty Stranglehold: how deeply repulsive is a woman to the world? — HARD COPY

The cosmetic surgery industry is predicted to balloon from $59.77 billion in 2024 to $81.66 billion by 2032. In a world ruled by algorithms, almost everyone is getting something done. A popular Instagram influencer, who would frequently receive comments telling her how beautiful she looked, shared her journey of her addiction to getting plastic surgery done. Not only did she spend $30,000 on herself, but she got her first surgery when she was 16. While she kept things transparent, it's important...

Missing Perspectives • 30th July 2024

Pursuing adventure in Goa as a plus-size woman... and healing my heart

My entire body is shaking. This is so stupid, is the only thought in my head. Why am I even doing this? Why am I an adventure junkie? What was wrong in sitting on sandy beaches and staring at the sea? Behind me, the instructor is getting impatient. I am going to dive in the air and it sounded absolutely ridiculous. Looking down, for what felt like looking down from the tenth floor, my soul was slowly leaving my body. At least there is water down below, if something were to happen. I said this to...

Business Insider • 20th April 2024

I started Pilates with the goal of doing the splits. I can now send my legs behind my head, and my back pain is healed.

Ever since I watched Kyle Richards do a split on "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" back in 2010 and then credit Pilates for it, I became obsessed with the idea of achieving the same. It looked so cool; I thought that if I could just master that one movement, I could challenge many stereotypes that exist about plus-sized bodies.

foyer magazine • 10th April 2024

Pursuing Freedom in the Land of the Dalai Lama: Dharamshala

Five years ago, I took my first solo trip to Dharamshala. The trip redefined my perspective on what life was supposed to look like. What I found there laid down the foundation of my 20s; pursuit of freedom, love, and opportunities that create social impact and facilitate friendship. Life at 21 had started seeming both incredibly big and jarringly small. On one hand, I was grappling with the real-world understanding of caste, religion, class and gender inequalities and on the other, I was failing to see what impact my insignificant self could have on this. To Dharamshala, I had ventured out simply to answer these questions.

This piece, which my lovely Editor Fiona Livingston commissioned (and I am such a fan of all the work she produces) for Foyer Magazine has written work that has been directly transferred from the travel journal of a 21-year-old as she was forced to confront her big issue; what does the world mean and what is going to be her role in it.

Missing Perspectives • 24th January 2024

Embracing Self-Love Beyond Body Positivity

When I was 16, after struggling with body dysmorphia for over half a decade, I remember thinking that I wanted to love my body, instead of constantly hating it and wishing for it to change. That was when the body positivity movement on social media really picked up. One piece of advice I saw repeated everywhere was asking you to look at yourself naked in a full-length mirror, an act that can encourage self-love.

So every time I would come back from a shower, I would just look at myself. My moth

foyer magazine • 9th April 2023

Carrying Home Wherever I go

Our second issue presents a special focus on what it feels like to belong, in all its shapes and sizes, through the concept of ‘home is where the heart is’. Varisha's article focuses on Chikankari in Lucknow and London and the connection of home with it

Refinery29 • 26th October 2022

Everything I Wore For My First Diwali In The UK

Since childhood, I’ve been obsessed with looking at calendars, particularly because there are so many holidays in India. I remember one year we had more holidays than school days because of the number of festivals we celebrated. Indians honour a multitude of holidays, irrespective of the religion each one belongs to, but if there’s one that we celebrate with everything we’ve got, it’s Diwali

For me, Diwali (also known as the festival of lights) was the time when all my friends were home for the

Vogue India • 8th October 2022

Are dating apps in India designed to make us swipe right on privilege?

Bumble, Tinder, OkCupid, Happn, Hinge, TrulyMadly, Woo and Badoo are just a few of the many dating apps in India that have become all the rage in recent times. We all know the gist: Modern life leaves hardly any time for organic connections to grow, and apps are convenient to fight off the ephemeral feeling of loneliness. You have the information required to assess an individual and see whether you can connect with them at your fingertips. If you have been on the apps, you know it’s a split-seco

Vogue India • 22nd July 2022

Bollywood item songs are being reclaimed by women to strip them of their sexism

At an all-girls college, sixty small groups of teenagers are scattered across the hallway. The teachers have all left, likely in search of some semblance of peace for a few hours, as the girls continue to sway to the beats vibrating throughout the auditorium. Presently, the music system is commandeered by a student body representative, and without warning, the thumping strains of Sheila Ki Jawaani are blasting through the hall. Everyone from the age of 15 to 18 is fervently singing along to this

Stylist • 7th July 2022

“As a Muslim Indian woman, Ms Marvel makes me feel seen at last”

A Muslim South Asian girl as a superhero? In some multiverse, there’s a teenage me squealing with joy at Disney+’s newest Marvel show, Ms Marvel. As an Indian Muslim woman who has grown up watching Marvel movies, I’ve waited a long time for this representation, and in the character of Kamala Khan, it has been worthwhile.

As an Indian Muslim, my first reaction to watching the show was of scepticism; would a Western audience tolerate this much south Asian-ness? Yet at no point has it felt that th

Vogue India • 30th June 2022

Lucknow’s monuments bear witness to the hidden love stories of its many visitors

Residency, counted among the most popular of Lucknow’s monuments, famous for the Indian Rebellion of 1857, is a couples’ haven. It’s fascinating to see what once was a battleground for our country’s quest for freedom is now a place where the revolution of love takes place every day. Couples in Lucknow escape into many of Residency’s nooks to spend time with each other—a secret they believe their families are blissfully unaware of. In a world that defines privacy as closed doors and password-prot

Desi Books • 16th March 2022

#DesiBooksReview 2: Fateema’s House of Her Own

“We don’t want to sell this house to a Mohammadan.” My father was too shocked to respond and a sob escaped my mother. She kept repeating how this was not the India where she’d grown up. I sat there disappointed, but not surprised. My parents had found their dream house after five years of searching but, more than the loss of a house, this served as a painful reminder of a Muslim’s place in today’s India. It broke our hearts to be reminded that there is a huge population in our country that would

Feminism In India • 31st March 2020

Book Review: Baluta By Daya Pawar

Baluta, a book written by famous Dalit Maharashtran poet and writer Daya Pawar, is one of the first Dalit autobiographies in India. Written in Marathi in the year 1978 the book casts light not only on the act of untouchability and atrocities committed on the Mahar community in Maharashtra but also brings out the pride that the Dalit community holds for itself. It reflects, personally, on Pawar’s own failings as a person, the intersectional women in his life and how caste boundaries remain wherev

Feminism In India • 19th March 2020

Film Review: Yeh Ballet Pushes Us To Work A Little Harder For Our Dreams

Yeh Ballet is a Sooni Taraporevala film that is based on her documentary Ballet Boys. Ballet Boys and by extension Yeh Ballet are films based on the lives of Amiruddin Shah and Manish Chauhan. These two young artists made their way out of the struggling life in Mumbai into the ballet world. Amiruddin Shah made into the Oregon Ballet Theatre in United states of America while Manish Chauhan joined Royal Ballet School in London.

The film is extraordinary for its ordinary portrayal of the struggle,

Feminism In India • 10th March 2020

Begum Hamida Habibullah: Politician And Social Activist | #IndianWomenInHistory

Begum Hamida Habibullah was one of the most popular faces in Lucknow; her work as a politician and a social activist changed the lives of thousands of women in and out of Lucknow.

Begum Hamida Habibullah was born on 20 November 1916, hailing from Hyderabad, she was the daughter of Nawab Bahadur Yar Jung of Hyderabad and Talmain Khatoon. At the age of 22, she was married to Major General Enaith Habibullah, who was the founder of National Defence Academy, Khadakvasla. Her later life as a politici