Having sexy imaginary friends is good for your mental health

If you were ever to visit illustrator and visual artist Maanya Dhar‘s home, watch out for Ms Luvli. She might seem cheerful, but behind the wide grin plastered on her face, the cogwheels in her brain are turning to concoct something fishy.

Inside, you might stumble upon the bohemian Kalavati. A long chat with this peace-loving environmentalist, and you will emerge from this conversation a sparkling new vegetarian.

Then of course there is the intimidating Ruby and whimsical Mumtaz stringing along her gold fish for a walk.

No, Dhar’s home is not an AirBnb for the hip and whimsical, nor is it a round-the-clock party house.

Other than its three flesh-and-blood co-habitants, the place is raging with Dhar’s imaginary friends — sexy, hedonistic women who aren’t afraid to show a little skin.    

“I was spending a lot of time at home in the lockdown and didn’t have any work. Like everyone else, it felt great to have all this free time a first, but things began turning negative and gloomy, and I was determined not to let that affect my mental health,” she says, explaining how she crossed paths with her adult imaginary friends, including a pin-up model and a granny knitting up spider web.

Dhar’s bright and flamboyant illustrations have a common thread running through them – unabashed sex appeal. “I like celebrating the female form,” says the illustrator, who struggled with body image issues as a teenager.

“I never fit into that conventional mould of what an attractive woman is supposed to look like, especially as per Indian standards – I’m not fair, slim or particularly graceful, and I’ve always been hairy. So I had to work through all of this. But once I did, I really came to appreciate the female forms with all its beautiful curves and bumps,” says Dhar.

She believes that all women should be allowed to feel sexy regardless of their physical appearances, and no one has the right to judge them because of it. “For me, sex appeal comes more from your personality — how you carry yourself because of the way you feel about yourself,” she says.

Dhar’s imaginary friends are a way to make up for the chance meetings that would inspire the illustrator – “I can still talk to my friends, but I miss running into women whose experiences can teach me a thing or two about life. These characters fill that gap — they’re women I’d like to talk to and learn from.”

There is one imaginary friend who’s a little different from the others, with an actual back story.

“During lockdown, my sister started spotting these tiny spiders all around her room,” she explains, adding that one had formed a bond with her. “It was always sitting on her desk every time she’d sit down to study. She would shoo it away, only to find it right where it was a few moments later. He would follow her to the bed if she was studying there, and literally just watch her study.”

And it was from this new addition to the Dhar household that the adorable web-knitting Thakuma with the perfect perm came into being.

Like with any girl gang, Dhar does have her favourites: “Ruby is a difficult woman, stubborn and going through a major life change. But she’s all there for it, tapping into this whole persona of who she really is, but never got to fully be when she was younger. It makes me feel happy, even though I know she wouldn’t be a very fun person to hang out with .”

Walking away form this conversation I wouldn’t mind me a badass Ruby or a Sassaba with fiery mic-drops.