By: Snigdha Agrawal HAND IN HAND That fateful day, he walked right inWith a swagger loud as a violin.CONFIDENCE,The kind that fills up a room like incense. A thick mop of hair, gloriously wild,Curled rebelliously behind each ear,Sideburns that ran…

By: David Agyei-Yeboah My nose is my bane. I fight with it every day. With how it looks, thinned against the bloated outlier of my face, sitting on top of a pointy neck and a bamboo body. I need surgery…

By: Priya Anand Palette of scenes from a train a bored guard on a snail paced goods trainan empty platform swept spotlessly cleana closed snack stand with red shuttersa lone man on a bench pondering life or the lack of…

By Chitra Gopalakrishnan We three sisters, each born five years apart, reunite in 2024 after a decade of separation. On the evening of January sixth, to be exact, we gather in New Delhi’s Hauz Khas, where our youngest sister, Neela,…

By Chitra Gopalakrishnan (Review: Gopal Lahiri, Selected Poems, published by Classix, an imprint of Hawakal, August 2025, New Delhi.) Gopal Lahiri, Selected Poems, published by Classix, an imprint of New Delhi-based Hawakal, August 2025, is a handpicked selection of Lahiri’s…

By: Bruce Levine Ghosts and goblinsShadows interferedBy vestiges of days gone pastThat hover in the atmosphere Posted on each doorstepChildren bewareThis house is filled with creaturesThat waken in the nightParading on their journeyLike tempests to create fright Hurricanes happenA vortex…

By: James Aitchison In solitude,hear the voice: In every life,there is a moment.Infinite wisdom willreplace the transient.Loss will becomeyour armour.You will see life throughthe eye of the soul.You will walk thequiet path.For in this life,you have been chosen.

By Susmita Mukherjee The fan whirred lazily above the small dining table as the morning light filtered through the thin lace curtains. The sound of traffic from the main road drifted faintly into the modest two-bedroom flat in North Kolkata….

By: John Swain The Pavilion The pavilion blazes whitein the sunlined by marble waters,purple dragonflies alleythe clear bodybeneath your hibiscus robe,we listen when we readfrom the flamedraping the open trees,the light unchanges into light,the light transpierces lightlike a waterfall of…

By: Pramod Rastogi Life’s Autumn As we walked side by sideAcross the landscapes of hindsight,She with the moon upon her left,And I with the sun upon my right. The moon glowed turquoise blue,The waning sun burned crimson red,Yet peace lay…