Fiction by Sanchalika Das: ‘I thought to myself that the god in heaven is just a child playing with clay, throwing it around with disregard and then picking it up with the intention of throwing it again with utter delight. The clay loses and gains in this process.’

Poetry by Parismita Kakati: ‘When they burn me by the river, my pyre ignites / with smoke that rises thick and not sandalwood sweet / A stench grapples the air, reeking of desire / like overripe fruit splitting under its own weight.’

Personal Essay by multidisciplinary artist Ravi Modi: ‘Truth, I came to realise, is fluid, shapeshifting, dusty, incomplete. It never arrives whole. It gathers slowly, the way vision does, through fragments and adjustments. Much like my own sight, truth is always in the process of becoming.’

Poems by Prahi Rajput: ‘the surviving curiosity / in descendant’s narrative is wrested from a ticket & one welcomes / the other through its foreign / door/translating displacement & dialect’

Fiction by Armaan: ‘Your jersey is all sweaty. And your shorts too. It’s stinking up my room. Take it off. / Dilawar’s eyes turned to the door. He felt like if he ran through it, nobody would find him. All he had to do was run.’

In her translation of Gujarati literary giant K.M Munshi’s “Ek Patra,” Rita Kothari uses language to reveal not just the story, but the hidden realities of the lives inhabited by the characters. By Rohee Dholakia

Poetry by Gopi Kottoor: ‘And why after that sun-dusked rainbow / Turned our eyes colour-blind // Why is it that your footprints in the dark, / Still lead me to that secret altar’

As the promises and threats of artificial intelligence signal a radical economic and social upheaval worldwide, Vipin Labroo argues why India may need to consider a fanciful UBI programme.

Poem by Anju Devadas R D: ‘They say the river hums here, / but no one sings along. / In this village, silence grows / like moss on every wall.’

In The Amateur (2024), Saikat Majumdar explores education, humanity, and inclusivity from different perspectives to highlight the major flaws of colonial education. The book asks for intensive correction in institutions and in the people’s psyche. By Kabir Deb

The crimes are bigger and bloodier in Raat Akeli Hai: The Bansal Murders, and the motives even messier; but at its core, the film is a hollow reproduction of its genre predecessors, a familiar formula traced into an inferior product. By Karan Madhok

Through films like Viduthalai, Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi, Virata Parvam, and more, Marnina (Avirup) explores how portrayals of the Naxalite Movement in Indian cinema confront the many under-represented fractures of our democracy.