Personal Essay by Jahnavi Gogoi: ‘It was obvious that the word “Militant” was not etched on anyone’s face. My mother kept saying it, late into the night, as if to convince herself that Lohit now had blood on his hands.’

Poetry by Siddh Dutta: ‘Her hours went into my becoming, / cruel it feels now / to realize how freedom can vanish without chains. / How may one choose a cage / and call it duty?’

From ancient Hindu traditions of retributive violence as well as history of aid and inspiration from abroad, Abhimanyu Kumar explores the complicated associations of our national song with India’s revolutionary movement.

Personal Essay by Mansi Dhankar: ‘Since 2020, Indian students have faced a pandemic, online classes that turned homes into cages, rising coaching culture, paper leaks, collapsing mental health, inflation, unemployment, and a future that grows more expensive each time the rupee weakens against the dollar.’

Continuing a five-decade-long singing career, Usha Uthup speaks about staying relevant with changing times, meme culture, radical self-love, and covering Miley Cyrus. By Deepansh Duggal

Rahul Bhattacharya speaks about the musicality behind Railsong, the taxonomical motifs at the heart of his novel, cricket journalism, and finding inspiration in Toni Morrison. By Saurabh Sharma

Poetry by Kartikay Agarwal: ‘Will the last book of the last people to write books / (when all else is said) at the end just say ‘write to me’? // The wheel spins the pot to life, yet leaves no trace, / You be potter, mould life into my clay—write to me.’

Short story by Madhurjya Goswami:‘It was only after the state police’s operations were over, after the troops with sniffer dogs scoured every nook of the city, after the NDRF’s neon orange jetties sliced across the grey Brahmaputra, that the body of singer Niren Rajkhowa washed up on the banks of the river in a quiet and leafier corner of Kharguli.’

In Never Logged Out, Ria Chopra presents astute observations on growing up online, Gen Z, and the Indian internet, approaching these subjects with a writer’s restraint rather than a theorist’s grandiosity. By Sneha Bengani

In Quichotte (2019) Salman Rushdie deconstructs the motif of the quest while creating a darkly humorous, grotesque, and irreverent anti-heroic saga of a modern day mock medieval knight. By Paromita Patrabonish

From its origins in the 1882 novel Anandmath, the attention of European Orientalists, and the impact on early Hindu nationalist movements, Abhimanyu Kumar traces the complicated legacy of India’s national song.

In a wide-ranging interview, Salini Vineeth speaks about profound questions of identity in her work, switching to literature after an engineering background, writing in multiple languages, and more. By Mitra Samal