Shaleen Rakesh is an Indian author and poet whose work blends lyricism, philosophical inquiry, and an intimate attentiveness to the natural world. 

As an activist, he played a leading role in India’s sexuality movement and was the primary petitioner who filed the landmark 2001 legal challenge against Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, the colonial-era anti-sodomy law. This sparked a legal journey that eventually led to the decriminalisation of homosexuality in India. 

Beyond his foundational activism, he built a career as an international development executive, editor, and a literary writer whose works delve into themes of ecology, intimacy, and human vulnerability.

Madness, his first novel, continues this exploration through the story of an ageing photojournalist walking the banks of the Rispana River. Told in a slow, meditative voice, the book weaves ecology, memory, and cultural disquiet into a lyrical portrait of a man, a river, and the fragile world they share.

Shaleen has written a non-fiction book of atmospheric philosophy called Constellations. The central thesis of Constellations is that the modern human exists within a luminous prison—a state of hyper-visibility, moral performativity, and digital saturation that has exiled us from our primordial origin: what he calls the magnificent sea of red. To survive this exile, the author introduces the figure of the ghost. Unlike the upright man who seeks to master and rectify the world, the ghost is a figure of porosity and suave resignation.

He is the author of The Lion and the Antler (WorldView Publications), a collection of poems exploring love, loss, and the body, and An Equal Indian (OpenWord Publications), a non-fiction examination of sexuality, identity, and social structures in contemporary India. His essays, reflections, and shorter writings have appeared across journals, platforms, and anthologies for more than two decades.

Shaleen divides his life between Delhi and Dehradun, moving between the intensity of the city and the quiet expanses of the hills. His writing is deeply influenced by the landscapes he inhabits…. the forests, rivers, and terraces of Uttarakhand, and by a lifelong curiosity about the human mind, its fractures, its tenderness, and its capacity for renewal.

Shaleen’s work is known for its minimalism, emotional resonance, and a quiet philosophical undercurrent. He writes with the conviction that stories are not answers but invitations…. to look more deeply, to listen more honestly, and to return to the inner landscapes we often abandon.

Shaleen can be contacted at shaleen.rakesh@gmail.com