What's your opinion?

Controversial opinions

"My most favourite thing to do with someone I meet for the first time is to ask them: What is the most controversial opinion that you hold?" For graphic designer and illustrator Maitreyi Bhatia, this conversation starter turned into a larger project - a zine titled Controversial Opinions.

The 23-year-old reminisces to the time of watching the news with her grandmother, the television being a chaotic space with people arguing over random topics. "I'd always ask my dadi - how do you even understand what they're saying if they're always shouting over each other? It's when I began to notice this in a lot of aspects of my life where people argue a lot more than they actually try to have respectful conversations," she says. Bhatia also stumbled upon American-Canadian comedian Steven Crowder's YouTube videos where he puts up a sign that reads ‘Change My Mind' along with controversial beliefs and invites people to engage in a civil discussion with him.

Then one day, drawing from the same approach, she decided to ask people about their controversial beliefs on Instagram and assured them that there would be zero judgment. The responses she received in turn, inspired the zine. Controversial Opinions is a compact booklet available in a print + digital format and coupled with text are Bhatia's illustrations. The topics include everything from the MeToo movement and incest to paedophilia and parenting. It succeeds at putting down words as they are - unsensational and unedited like they should be.

A panel from Controversial Opinions Vol. 1

Did you have to curate the responses in a particular format? What were your biggest learnings after the first volume was published?

I collected all the opinions through an anonymous online Google form so people would be more comfortable sharing their thoughts. I then decided not to edit them in any way so that individuals could have their opinions heard in the way that they wish for people to hear them. There were no learnings but there was a massive sigh of relief because I was nervous at first but my zine was met with a lot of positivity and encouragement, so many people told me that my zine gave them the strength to voice their beliefs more freely in their friend circles, a lot of people said they would previously hold back because they held beliefs that weren't popular among their group but now they have the courage to be true to themselves.

Also, a couple of people told me how they would previously attack people verbally when they didn't agree with their viewpoint and now they see how that's counterproductive and have hence started having civil conversations more, which makes me super happy because that's been my goal.

Maitreyi Bhatia

The cover art looks more like a self-portrait. Broadly speaking, what value do you think opinions hold in the political climate of today?

The reason why I chose to have my self-portrait as the cover was because I feel as if I've been a people-pleaser for most of my life and I've struggled with expressing my opinions to people with the fear of being judged for them, but through this zine I too have learnt to embrace my apprehensions. I'm also active on my Instagram handle @monkibusiness_. I see people constantly getting called out or 'cancelled' as people now refer to it, merely for opinions they hold and instead I feel like all of us should create a more caring environment where we discuss our differences and don't fight them out because that's how I believe society will truly progress, hence this topic is close to my heart and I felt it would be fitting to hence have a self-portrait as the front cover.

Is the second volume going to be any different?

The cover page will be different of course and I'm planning on changing the name from controversial opinions to controversial beliefs because I feel like that would be more fitting, I also hope to make the zine much more affordable. My long-term goal with this zine is to make it a monthly subscription zine where each month viewers can read the zine and contribute their own opinions.

Log on to: www.maitreyibhatia.in (to order volume 1)

https://bit.ly/ControversialBeliefs (to contribute to volume 2)

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