English
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The Invisible Wall
Ananya Deshpande Episode 1 – Across the Alley The alley was barely wide enough for two people to walk shoulder to shoulder, yet to Rohit it felt like a border he could never cross. On his side stood a row of aging houses, their paint peeling in the damp Kolkata monsoon, their balconies strung with…
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A Hundred Steps to You
Saanvi Roy Episode 1 – The Photograph The city was still shaking off the heat of late afternoon when Maya pushed her way through the crowded lanes of Chandni Chowk. Dust hung in the air like an invisible veil, clinging to her hair and the white kurta she had foolishly chosen to wear that morning.…
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The Last Lantern of Buxa
Rishabh Sen Gupta Episode 1: The Vanished Trekkers The forest had been restless that week, or so the villagers of Rajabhatkhawa said, though none of them would put it into words when Kavya Dutta asked, notebook in hand, recorder tucked away in her bag. They shook their heads, muttered something about elephants straying too close,…
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The Hooghly Shadow
Drishan Nnaskar 1 The dawn broke over Kolkata with a muted hush, as though the city itself was reluctant to wake. From the eastern bank of the Hooghly, the mist still clung to the river like an old, grey shawl, and the metallic silhouette of Howrah Bridge loomed above, carrying the rumble of early trams…
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Mumbai Undercover
Rabi Kumar Prasad Chapter 1 – The Assignment Mumbai never slept, and Inspector Arjun Mehra knew that better than most. The city’s pulse throbbed through the neon-lit streets, its chaos both maddening and alive, and at the center of it all, he stood like a solitary soldier fighting an endless war. Arjun was known as…
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The Haunted Stepwell
Sourabh Shukla One Meera Joshi adjusted her backpack and wiped the sweat from her brow as she stood at the edge of the ancient Adalaj Stepwell in Gujarat. The air was thick with humidity, and a faint breeze carried the scent of wet stone and earth, giving the place a mysterious, almost otherworldly atmosphere. Her…
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Moonlit Raga
Sukanya Trivedi Anjali stepped off the slow-moving train, the humid air of Kerala immediately wrapping around her like a warm embrace. The station was small, almost forgotten by time, but the distant sound of temple bells and chirping birds lent it a mystical charm. Her eyes wandered over the dense palm groves that stretched endlessly…
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The Goddess Who Wept Blood
Prabhakar Iyer 1 The monsoon had arrived with a vengeance. Sheets of rain lashed against the tiled roofs of the small village of Bhawanipur, and the narrow lanes had turned into rivulets of muddy water rushing toward the swollen river. Thunder cracked across the sky, shaking the earth as if some forgotten deity was demanding…
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The Monsoon Mystery
Diganta Deka The monsoon descended upon the small riverside town with an unrelenting fervor, turning the earth into a mosaic of muddy puddles and swollen streams. The sky, a heavy slate of gray, spilled sheets of rain that drummed ceaselessly on tin roofs and rusted verandas. The Brahmaputra, already a commanding presence in the town’s…
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Shadows in the Mangroves
Pranoy Mukherjee 1 The riverine labyrinth of the Sundarbans spread before Kabir Roy like a living, breathing entity, dense with tangled roots, sprawling mangroves, and the relentless shimmer of tidal waters. The launch that carried him from the bustling chaos of Kolkata to the remote delta moved sluggishly, rocking gently against the currents, its engine…
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Ballygunge 76
The night Anwesha Sen vanished began like so many ordinary evenings in Kolkata’s monsoon season, with laughter echoing from cafés, headlights streaking down rain-slicked roads, and young voices carrying on late into the night. At seventeen, Anwesha was at that tender age balanced between recklessness and restraint, a girl whose smile disarmed her strict schoolteachers…
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Strangers on the Night Train
Chapter 1 – The Departure The evening at Delhi Railway Station was a symphony of controlled chaos. Platforms teemed with passengers clutching tickets and bags, while porters darted back and forth, balancing mountains of luggage on their heads and shoulders. Vendors hawked steaming cups of chai, fried snacks, and newspapers, their calls cutting through the…