“Renewals” and other poems by Sunil Sharma
Poetry by Sunil Sharma: ‘The moment // compresses the competing / time-zones and geographies; // unites the widely-apart views / into / a single landscape of converged / colours.’
The Remedy
Fiction by Samruddhi Ghodgaonkar: ‘When my foot slipped, I felt a familiar sense of suspension, the weightlessness of a social pariah, a suspension that now waited with a terrible consequence.’
Mightier than the Bullet: The Writings of Julio Riberio
In Hope for Sanity, a collection of columns filled with nuggets of wisdom, empathy, and advice, decorated former policeman Julio Riberio emerges as a “conscience keeper” for our nation. By Karan Madhok
Arundhati Roy: A Troublemaker Needed for our Troubled Times
Arundhati Roy’s storytelling illuminates the desires to split open the human grids that characterize our world, and fulfil her yearning for a particular kind of homeland: a gentler, stiller, less hypocritical, and less transactional place. By Saba Karim Khan
Resident Alien
Poem by Ankit Raj Ojha: ‘North Indian colleagues treat me as equal, / yet the demeaning bhaiye surfaces often / when they speak of Biharis not me.’
Revolution on the Airwaves: An Account of India’s Tumultuous Radio History
In Radio for the Millions: Hindi-Urdu Broadcasting Across Borders, Isabel Huacuja Alonso demonstrates how radio created transnational communities of listeners and broadcasters, who defied colonial and postcolonial governments’ stranglehold over the medium and maneuvered it for their own purposes. By Sohel Sarkar
A Pair of Jhumkas
Fiction by Aarushi Agrawal: ‘She couldn’t believe this was happening to her—these conspiracies, these trending hashtags, all playing out in real life. There was no need to engage. By now, Vaani and Aaqib were walking as briskly as the woods would allow.’
The Security Guard
Fiction by Divy Tripathi: ‘Suddenly, a new hunger arose inside. A desire for instant retribution enveloped him, a sudden need to right this particular slight. “I am not your servant,” he said. “Talk with respect.”’
Black Plums and a Purple Heart
Personal Essay by Babli Yadav: ‘Ten minutes into our ride, we land upon this road patch with grave signs of purple. Hundreds of fallen fruits of an old jamun tree, squished, squashed, and beaten by the dance of the July winds.’
The Queen And I—An Excerpt from YAARI
Essay by Raina Bhattacharya: ‘Rani started asking me very difficult questions—to which I had no answers. She wondered what her future would be like—she said that maybe in the future there would be projections of Replikas developed rather than them simply being an app on the phone.’
“Loom” and other poems by Jahnavi Gogoi
Poetry by Jahnavi Gogoi: ‘Once more I shudder / at the call of a Bay Owl’