‘Is this what the desperate call a life?’ Four ghazals by Amrit Lal “Ishrat” Madhok
Ghazals by Amrit Lal “Ishrat” Madhok, translated from Urdu by Karan Madhok: ‘Are we mere companions, or do we swim / Together in the fountains of heaven, waters blue?’
‘Poetry a turmoil / born out of nothingness’: Two poems by Santasree Chaudhuri
Two poems by Santasree Chaudhuri: ‘Blissful acceptance / Staring at the moon / with an empty stomach.’
Abdon Mech, AK VS AK, and Annie Zaidi - What's The Chakkar?
What’s The Chakkar? Episode 5: We’re listening to Abdon Mech; watching AK vs AK and Indian meta-cinema, and reading Annie Zaidi and Yaa Gyasi. Featuring Ady Manral, Urmi Bhattacheryya, and Shaista Vaishnav. Hosted by Karan Madhok.
From the Unsettled Dusts of Manipur
“These are more than just stories. They are our history.” Veio Pou’s debut novel Waiting for the Dust to Settle (2020) narrates a story drawn from real-life incidents from Operation Bluebird in Manipur, blending the personal and the political. By Saurabh Sharma
Mental Health in India: Academic Spaces as Centres of Well-Being and Resilience
After a lengthy lay-off, Indian academic institutions have begun to re-open and welcome students back to campus. In interviews with students from around the country, Sadaf Vidha explores how visible and invisible structures in academic spaces affect their mental health.
Golchakkar: Mother Tongues in a Global Context
Golchakkar Series - The March panel of our virtual literary talk features Benyamin, Pankhuri Sinha, Ramesh Karthik Nayak, and Neelam Saxena Chandra: Mother Tongues in a Global Context.
The Kitchen and the Cage
Jeo Baby’s remarkable film The Great Indian Kitchen (2021) is a critique of patriarchy in Indian households, a delicious recipe of a discomforting, cold dish. - By Deekshith Pai
Fishing Along the Coringa Mangrove Forests
Photo Gallery: The mangrove forests of Coringa in Andhra Pradesh are home to fishing communities that live close to the bank of the Korangi river, their livelihood dependent on the unique ecosystem of the region. By Srikanth M.V.
A Riot in the Guise of Prose
The burden and rot of history lead a small Indian town to the precipice of tragedy. Annie Zaidi’s poetic novel Prelude to a Riot is a red flag of violence to come, a siren sound of the irreversible hate that has been brewed in the town—and the larger nation. By Karan Madhok
Good Girls
Short story by Samia Ahmed: ‘This is not an introduction, it’s a mating ritual. I am twenty-four and ripe for marriage.’
‘I only count the exile years of my life’ – Five poems by Gopal Lahiri
Five poems by Gopal Lahiri: ‘somewhere the curling script of history hangs over / the old crossword book of migration’.
Excerpt: GIRAR by Kiran Bhat
Girar is a streaming novel by Kiran Bhat which will take place in 365 different corners of the planet. “A New Year” is an excerpt from the first instalment of Girar, setting up the premise on the first day of the Kannada New Year.