The Dead Authors Society: Pritam, Manto, and the Betrayal of Posthumous Publishing
Amrita Pritam, Saadat Hasan Manto, and Kamala Das were all writers who, even in life, lived on the edge of taboo, scandal, and self-revelation. In death, stripped of agency, their voices have been reframed by the very people who claim to honour them. By Treya Sinha
What Ed Sheeran’s “Sapphire” gets right about representing India
From Coldplay’s misguided “Hymn for the Weekend” to Ed Sheeran’s collaborative “Sapphire,” Akankshya Abismruta celebrates a new kind of cultural synthesis between the West and the East.
Far from my prescribed world: Four poems by Mary Tina Shamli Pillay
Poetry by Mary Tina Shamli Pillay: ‘Pressured through the / mist, we are tormented / by the sharp blue sky, / the muffled din of a / wailing child, the crackle / of a hostess, the wrapping / unwrapping of smiles.’
You Are Who I Love: Poems by Prashant Pundir
Poetry by Prashant Pundir: ‘You are who I love, handmaking woolens, handmaking hope, handmaking this life, you who, with your tiny legs, walk to all the medicine stores and dog shelters and government buildings, saying: I REFUSE TO SPEAK A LANGUAGE PIROUETTED IN HATE AND ANGER’
Presenting: The Landour Literature and Arts Festival!
Editorial: With the intention of promoting the arts borne and inspired from Landour, Mussoorie, and the Garhwal region, The Chakkar and the Mussoorie Heritage Centre [MHC] are launching the Landour Literature & Arts Festival. The first edition of LLAF will shine a light upon history, literature, art, music, poetry, film, and more. By Karan Madhok
Smooth Operators: Meet Cauvery’s Elusive Apex Predator in MY OTTER DIARY
The team behind the documentary My Otter Diary (2025) speak about filming the enigmatic species, conflict between fisherman and wildlife, and their hopes for otter conversation. By Sravasti Datta
Everything We’ve Become: Four Poems by Goirick Brahmachari
Poetry by Goirick Brahmachari: ‘Love is like the wild lilacs, white / Apple trees over green meadows, / Riverstones I have walked over / For years— splattered, irate, broken.’
Dumb Witness
Short story by Madhurjya Goswami: ‘You ask yourself a question: How does a fallen airplane look? Does it look like a pigeon squashed to the ground, its neck askew? And the hot, unplastered room answers: well, you’ve got to see it yourself.’
A Manual for Memory: The Poetry of Meena Kandasamy
Meena Kandasamy’s collection Tomorrow Someone Will Arrest You is poetry as resistance literature, where aesthetic beauty and political activism merge to challenge a nation’s conscience. By Amritesh Mukherjee
At the Rohtang Pass, “We need tourists, but we also need clean air. It’s a tough balance.”
Photo Story by Quamar Equbal and Sumit Singh: Rohtang is a vibrant artery of travel, adventure, and survival, pulsing with stories of resilient people who call this rugged pass their lifeline. But unchecked tourism, pollution, and rising environmental concerns have left it under siege.
All the Lives Syeda Ever Lived: An Interview with Neha Dixit
Neha Dixit, the author of The Many Lives of Syeda X, speaks about the story of an ‘invisible’ India through the tale of one working-class woman, her approaches to journalism, and the “collective failure” of Indian society. By Saurabh Sharma