Personal Essay by Ajay Patri: ‘Sometimes I like to imagine a parallel universe in which my brother stayed. In this universe, I continued playing cricket after school, continued following the sport with the fervour of most of my compatriots.’

Fiction by Neera Kashyap: ‘“My friends say this is dirty blood,” she said. “That’s why nobody talks about it, not even our mothers. Not even when there is pain. My mother says not to eat this and that, says I have to be careful now, dress modestly, not talk to boys.”’

Fiction by Kanya Kanchana: ‘Have you ever considered what it takes to make a goddess appear from wood and stone? My uli does not make a single false stroke.’

With a potential scenario of a water Armageddon looming for India, Vipin Labroo argues that the fight to avert a total crisis must be no less than a national crusade.

Photo Essay: Over 250 years since its inception, the Ramlila of Ramnagar—a ‘play’ dramatizing Rama’s story from the Ramcharitmanas—still exists as a faint time capsule of the past. by Karan Madhok

Tejaswini Apte-Rahm’s The Secret of More (2022) tells a provocative tale of urbanization in early 20th-century Bombay. By Akankshya Abismruta

Poetry by Anushri Nanavati: ‘September is penned in the black ink of loss: / the carcasses of a thousand spiders / strung together, legs locked, tumbling / in tandem’

Fiction by Urmi Chakravorty: ‘She lived in a community where a woman could cement her position only after she bore children. Without a biological offspring, her worth was limited: she was like another supermarket product, destined to be discarded after a brief shelf life.’

The medical survival thriller Kaala Paani (2023) explores the dehumanization of indigenous communities through the prism of politics, development, and a dangerous pandemic in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. By Anusha Prakash

Featuring artwork by some of India’s greatest artists, “Ink” at New Delhi’s Gallery Espace plays the role of a catalyst in thinking beyond the normative practices of art-making, art showcasing, and curatorial interventions. By Satarupa Bhattacharya

An exhibition of work by T.S. Satyan—dubbed ‘the father of photojournalism in India—presents him as an image maker who found lightness and joy in chaos. By Bindu Gopal Rao

Linda Ashok’s Sharpless 29 is a collection that marries precise scientific theories to metaphors of both mundane and extraordinary human questions, all interspersed with witty and rich poetic ornaments. By Nivedita Dey