Chal Chitr: Ek Chann-Channata Safarnama¹
Pehla Padav ² Concentric circles stare at me, from the pits of venerated hollowness of the camera lens. I run from shutter clicks that construct my waist and hips with an authoritarian yearning of personified perfections, a delusion inherited in the trauma-bonded culture of the colonizer’s tricks. Dusra Padav Chalte Chalte ³ I […]
Breaking Stories on 30.07.2023
Breaking Stories on 30.07.2023 by Garfield D’Souza Breaking Stories on 30.07.2023 The globe has warmed itself into a boil. People have died in a flood that draped its saree into a tunnel. A war somewhere in the West is wearing the sack cloth of the wheat it drowned into its pit. More than […]
Mushq-E-Hawas
Mushq-E-Hawas by Umesh Gautam Mushq-E-Hawas Naam ishq hai meraa tamaam ishq hai meraa merii kauvvat ko darakinaar karne vaalon lowṭkar phir aaoge anjaam ishq hai meraa yuun gamz kaa honaa laazamii hai vakt lagtaa hai ye khaamiyaan libaas hai meraa magar paak to tum bhii nahiin mushq-e-havas kii talaash men ho to mere vajuud se […]
Tapestry/ Telltale
A Collection by Carol D’Souza Tapestry Telltale Tapestry For some, history is only a cleaver that makes mincemeat on repeat Decidedly, less of the grand and more of the deadbeat. Nevertheless, what is seen to survive is a cured package of processed parcel to be served salted and spiced in the flavour favoured by the […]
Lord of the Dance
Lord of the Dance Balancing on one leg with my hands outstretchedLike a clumsy cane in flightSteadying slowly I caress the delicate balance of the Nataraja Yogic poseIn my dreams, a unicorn ambling on the mountainside inspiredMe to the fluid rhythms of this numberWhich opens my arms to the spaciousness of the windAnd roots my […]
Ardhanari
Ardhanari I was a child of eight,my frail handsreflectedin the old dirt-stained mirror;cuffed with glass bangles,my little body was wrappedin a bright red saree.I didn’t like this imagery.It was never in tandem with my own scenery.That was the year I was worshiped as the kunwari,the pre-pubescent nymphon the eighth day of Devi-puja. Years later,I sat […]
Khata – e – Ishq
Khata – e – Ishq Haqiqat ka kuch aisa afsana hai,pehchaan ab zulm ka bahana hai.Ek aisi dastaan iss jahan ko sunani hai,gaur karna, yeh mere sach ki kahani hai. Har mod pe aake mein atak gaya tha,jo rasta na chuna uspe bhatak gaya tha.Aaine mein jo nazar utha ke dekhi tohsaamne khada shakhs mujhe […]
After Maidan Garhi
A Collection by Akhil Katyal After Maidan Garhi Night sounds at Safdarjung Tomb How rivers cross their cities After Maidan Garhi everyone grows thornsto protect themselves. Under your feetthe stonesare no longer stonesbut foothills land isunintended cricket fieldsthen dustthen leopard pugmarks. This is the desertsigning you in slowlythrough kikar’s checkpost. They call it the devil […]
Metro-Nome-Love
Metro-Nome-Love Agla station — KASHMIRI GATE — haiNext station is — KASHMIRI GATE Rini and Shammi’s luscious prophecies slip out of the speakers overhead,and I am caressed gently out of a drugged dream by spurious sounds. As the rich timbre of moving metal returns, I adjust my seated body— straighten, stretch — and look about […]
Habits
A Collection by Abhijato Sensarma Habits On Seeking Out the City A Language I Could Only Speak with You Habits You are a habitwhich has overstayed in my headlike a nicotine rush that no longer arriveswhen I puff on a solitary cigaretteat a chai stallinstalled in an anonymous corner of a busy streetwhere the city […]
