Nivedita Dey recalls the glory days of Mumbai’s bygone Cafe Samovar, where for decades, friends, family, strangers, students, lawyers, homemakers, thinkers, creative souls, Bollywood icons, Marxists, liberals, and more diverse groups of humans huddled over cups of cutting chai.

From Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Lagaa, Badhai Do, Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan, and more, a fresh lease of life seems to have been granted to a responsible on-screen LGBTQIA+ representation in the glitzy-verse of commercial Bollywood over the past decade. By Nivedita Dey

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