BEING KALI

Ecologist & musician Ditty has long sung of nature and migration, but with KALI, she turns inward reclaiming dark skin, redefining beauty, and confronting the shame etched by colourism

- ADITHI REENA AJITH

HE sings of the world, of nature, of those who suffer and survive, and of quiet love. Her music has long asked difficult questions about humanity. But this time, Delhi-born singer-songwriter Aditi Veena, known as Ditty, turns inward, singing of her own life—of growing up kali (dark-skinned).

In our society, the word kali often slips out as a snide or insult, a reminder of how deeply colourism runs through our culture. With ‘KALI’, the title track of her latest eponymous album, Ditty pushes back against that attitude—one that has long dictated narrow standards of beauty while denying countless women the right to see their own skin as beautiful.

Growing up in Delhi in a Rajasthani family, Ditty recalls being called kali