English
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The Forgotten Song
Ishita Malhotra Part 1 – The Caller at Midnight The studio smelled faintly of dust and old vinyl. Anika leaned back on her swivel chair, headphones pressing gently against her ears, her fingers drumming idly on the console as the clock blinked past midnight. Kolkata outside was muffled rain and the occasional tram bell. Inside,…
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The Last Call from Jatinga
Mridul Sharma Chapter 1: Arrival in Jatinga unfolds with an air of subtle unease, as Ranjit Barua makes his way into the mist-laden village nestled deep within the hills of Assam. From the moment he arrives, he senses the unusual stillness that hangs over the place, a quiet that seems almost unnatural. The village is…
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The Accidental Mayor
Rohan Banerjee On the morning the town decided Arjun Mishra was qualified to run a municipality, he overslept, which, in his defense, was how he responded to most major events including India matches, family weddings, and gas cylinder deliveries, and when his phone alarm blared “RISE, MAYOR,” not because he was prophetic but because his…
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The Salt Bride
Meenakshi Varadhan Part 1: The White Desert The train had left him at Bhuj, dusty and sun-beaten, a town that seemed more like the last outpost before the world ended. From there Kabir Deshmukh rode in a rattling jeep to the edge of the Rann, the salt flats spreading like a white ocean under the…
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The Waiting Shore
Aarav Mehta The rain had already begun its ritual when Aarav stepped out of the rickety taxi, his leather bag soaked on one side, his shirt clinging to his back as if Goa itself had wrapped its humid arms around him. It was not the Goa he remembered from his childhood vacations—the postcard beaches, the…
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Delhi Summer Heat
Nidhi Desai 1 The heat had been building all day, pressing down on Delhi like a smothering hand. By nightfall, the air felt thick enough to drink, and the streets carried the scent of dust, sweat, and faintly rotting garbage. Then, without warning, the city’s power grid collapsed. First the lights flickered, dimmed, and then…
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The Music Room Murder
Alok Mukherjee I The Mallick mansion stood like a fading relic on one of South Kolkata’s quieter streets, its grandeur worn down by decades of neglect, yet still capable of stirring awe in those who crossed its threshold. Rajat Mallick, the current custodian of this ancestral home, walked through its corridors with a nervous air,…
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The Glass Horizon
Aaratrika Roy The evening the horizon cracked, the sea smelled like rusted coins and wet moss, and the sky wore the color of old bruises, and I stood on the seawall gripping my father’s compass like it might point me toward a version of myself that wasn’t stuck between everybody’s pity and my own silence;…
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The Forgotten Carnival
Evelyn Hart Part 1 – The Road Into the Woods The forest road narrowed like a throat as they drove deeper into it, the canopy closing overhead until sunlight became a dim green wash, a trickle of light spilling between branches that seemed too eager to entwine. The rental car rattled over roots breaking through…
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The Secret Playlist of Juhu Beach
Sourav Moitra One Twilight always made Juhu Beach look like a painting someone had brushed in haste—the sky neither day nor night, streaked with orange fading into violet. The waves came and went with their tired rhythm, dragging along whispers of the city, mixing them with the smell of roasted corn and sea salt. Amid…
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Murder at the Monastery
Pramit Deshmukh 1 The hills of Dharamshala carried a silence unlike any other. It was not the silence of emptiness, but one layered with murmurs of prayer wheels, the occasional clang of temple bells, and the distant rustle of pine forests swaying with the mountain wind. In the early mornings, the mist floated across the…
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Whispers of the Shyambazar House
Anirban Sen The tram rattled past Bagbazar and screeched towards Shyambazar, its iron wheels sparking against the stubborn tracks as dusk settled over North Kolkata. The air smelled of roasted peanuts, incense smoke, and an old kind of weariness that clung to the city’s bones. Ananya adjusted her satchel against her shoulder and stepped off…