Poetry by Kamakshi Lekshmanan: ‘a man influences a knife, sways the auburn twigs. gentle and soft. // the heap of brunet lay aside, / besides a pair of eyes submit – in gratitude.’

In religion, politics, and mainstream pop culture, there is inexplicable hypocrisy and stinging prejudice surrounding the subject of menstruation in India. It begs for more proactive activism around the same. By Nivedita Dey

Poems by Laila Brahmbhatt: ‘On the city’s edge, where destiny echoes, / hope crawled through cracks. / Even roses in New Delhi / orphan their thorns.’

“Jai Mata Di, let’s rock.” Himesh Reshammiya’s career has come full circle: from topping the charts, to flops and cringe compilations, and back to dominating global rankings. By Himanshi Aggarwal

In Brute Face/Home Truth (2025), Rounak Maiti presents a personal, cathartic album, with a dizzying soundscape that remains unbound by the constructs of genre. By Saptaparna Samajdar

In a detailed conversation, poet Madhu Raghavendra speaks about his literary journey, finding space for politics in his poetics, the inspiration of art and bhakti in his work, and more. By Chittajit Mitra

Poem by Hiranmayi Krishnakumar: ‘There’s a chair by the window / waiting for someone who doesn’t arrive / in this version. / The cushion sinks on its own. / It has good memory foam. / The fan spins like it’s trying to erase the century.’

In the ecologically-sensitive Himalayan regions, the regularity of natural disasters and the scale of damage have increased rapidly in recent years. The two most-significant factors behind this phenomenon have been overdevelopment and climate change. By Vipin Labroo

Mehak Jamal’s Loal Kashmir (2025) is a witness, a tender archive of what it means to love in a region of conflict—how intimacy reshapes itself around checkpoints, how longing endures without signal bars, how the heart insists on ordinary joys in extraordinary times. By Shivani Patel

In Night in Delhi (2025), Ranbir Sidhu lays bare the city of shadowlands, and of lives pushed to the margins of visibility and worth, as it exists in continuum alongside the bright and aestheticized metropolis. By Anjali Chauhan

The picture book Roop and the River Crossing (2025)—written by Samina Mishra and illustrated by Shivam Choudhary—gently nudges its readers to reflect upon the ideas of home, belongingness, displacement, and what it means to be uprooted as one steps into the unknown. By Navtoj Khosla

Photos: Speakers and artists from the hillside and beyond attended the first edition of the LLAF in Landour to shine a light upon literature, history, art, music, poetry, film, and more. By Karan Madhok