• English - Romance

    Desert Heat

    August 10, 2025 - By 

    Nisha Bhatt 1 The heat hit Meera the moment she stepped out of the small taxi, a dry, almost physical force that wrapped around her like an unwelcome embrace. The sun above Jaisalmer was merciless, turning the very air into a wavering haze. Yet, through the shimmer, she saw it—the great fort, its honey-gold sandstone walls rising above the old city, glowing like a mirage against the pale blue sky. The streets leading up to it were a winding tangle of ochre walls, brightly painted doorways, and the occasional splash of bougainvillea spilling over balconies. Cows wandered lazily in the…

  • English - Fiction - Suspense

    The Ledger of Ghosts

    August 9, 2025 - By 

    Kiran Vale Part 1: The Night Market I never wanted to be seen—not by cameras, not by shareholders, not by the people who carry their hunger like a country on their backs. If you’re looking for villains, you expect a face. I prefer vectors: numbers that travel when no one is watching. Call me what the blogs do—crypt billionaire, ghost tycoon, a rumor with a balance sheet. The words don’t matter. Only the ledgers do. Mumbai had just finished raining the sea back onto itself. From the penthouse window in BKC, the city looked like a pulsing circuit. My phone…

  • Crime - English

    Code Name: Lotus

    August 8, 2025 - By 

    Sayan Chanda Chapter 1: The Breach The rain had been falling over Delhi like a shroud, soft but relentless, turning the city into a hazy reflection of itself. Inside the Cyber Crime Monitoring Cell, the fluorescent lights hummed over rows of analysts, their eyes glazed and fixated on flickering data streams. At exactly 2:17 a.m., an alert blinked red on the mainframe—an unauthorized data access breach from a Level-4 secure server housed within the Research and Analysis Wing. The room froze. The breach wasn’t a foreign threat; it had originated from a local IP in Noida, cloaked under multiple VPN…

  • English - Romance

    Monsoon Letter

    August 8, 2025 - By 

    A. Dev Menon 1 The train ride from Ernakulam to Fort Kochi was slow and blurred with rain, the landscape melting into green paddy fields and red-tiled roofs beneath the gray monsoon sky. Mira Thomas sat by the window, her notebook unopened on her lap, her thoughts adrift. The smell of damp earth and old train seats mingled in the air, but it was the silence inside her that weighed most heavily. Just a week ago, she had packed up her apartment in Mumbai, returned the engagement ring to a velvet box, and walked away from a relationship that had…

  • Crime - Hindi

    नीले जंगल का साया

    August 8, 2025 - By 

    आरव सिंह ठाकुर भाग 1: पहाड़ की पहली चीख धुंध सुबह की खिड़की पर जम चुकी थी जैसे किसी ने रात भर चुपचाप रोते हुए आंसुओं से शीशा धो डाला हो मलाणा घाटी में सूरज का उदय हमेशा देर से होता है लेकिन उस दिन उसकी रौशनी जैसे खुद डर गई थी गांव के ऊपर जो नीला जंगल फैला था उसके बीचोंबीच एक चीख गूंजी थी जो इंसान की नहीं लगती थी पर इंसानों की दुनिया में ही गिरी थी सुभाष ठाकुर अपने लकड़ी के मकान की छत से धुआं निकालते चूल्हे की ओर देखते हुए उस आवाज़ को महसूस…

  • English - Suspense

    THE LAST MANUSCRIPT

    August 8, 2025 - By 

    Sanjana Iyer 1 The rain had settled into a soft, rhythmic patter against the windowpanes of Vidya Ranganathan’s rented flat in Bandra when the doorbell rang—a sound far too sudden for a Sunday morning steeped in the smell of filter coffee and undone to-do lists. She opened the door to find no one, only a brown-paper-wrapped parcel resting on the doormat, slightly damp, addressed in old-fashioned cursive to “Vidya Ranganathan, Editor (Retired), Mumbai.” No sender, no postage. Inside was a manuscript—pages browned and curling at the edges, parts of it scorched as if rescued from a fire. The title etched…

  • English - Horror

    The Narmada Pact

    August 8, 2025 - By 

    Aarushi Trivedi One The monsoon had just withdrawn from the land, leaving behind a scent of damp earth and ancient memories as Dr. Meera Rao stepped off the dusty jeep that brought her to Shulgaon—a quiet riverside village wrapped in dense sal groves and secrets. From the banks of the Narmada, the landscape stretched out with a deceptive serenity, the river gliding past like a sentient observer. Meera adjusted the scarf around her neck, shielding herself from the lingering heat, her eyes already scanning the site marked by flags and canvas tarps. It was an unassuming mound just fifty meters…

  • English - Travel

    Across Skylines and Souks: A Travel Diary

    August 8, 2025 - By 

    Raisa Choudhury Part 1: The Passport Window There’s something quietly electric about the moment just before a journey begins, that tiny pulse of anticipation you feel as you zip up your suitcase for the last time and check your passport compulsively even though you know it’s there, waiting like a silent witness to whatever this new chapter holds, and that’s exactly how I felt at 3:47 a.m. in my cluttered Delhi apartment, staring at the cab’s taillights as I locked my door behind me with a rush of both fear and freedom, not yet knowing that this trip would be…

  • English - Young Adult

    The Firefly Pact

    August 8, 2025 - By 

    Isla Verma Mira Patel wasn’t expecting to find anything interesting in a house that smelled like mothballs and mildew. Her grandfather’s old bungalow in Elmsworth was the kind of place that felt stuck between timelines—one foot in 1973, the other refusing to acknowledge anything after dial-up internet. Still, here she was, sleeves rolled up, armed with cardboard boxes, and guilt-tripped by her father into helping him “sort things out.” “Start with the attic,” he’d said, handing her a flashlight like they were preparing for a cave dive instead of old furniture and dead spiders. The attic door groaned like something…

  • English - Romance

    Velvet Threshold

    August 8, 2025 - By 

    Celeste Ray Part 1: The Arrival The train pulled into the quiet Provençal station at dusk, the fading sun casting long shadows across the stone platform. Alina stepped out slowly, the hem of her linen dress brushing against her knees as the wind stirred—a breath, a sigh, something ancient in the air. Her suitcase, old leather and scuffed at the corners, felt heavier than it should have. Not just with clothes or sketchbooks, but with everything she had left behind in London. The brochure had promised solitude. An artist residency in a converted vineyard. Ten guests. Ten days. No internet.…