Young Adult
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The Girl from the Hills
Riya Gurung The Voice in the Mist The mornings in Darjeeling never really began with sunlight. They began with mist—soft, white, and slow, like a secret being whispered across the hills. It rolled over rooftops, curled around the narrow roads, and settled gently on the tea gardens where women with woven baskets began their day…
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The Weight of Stars
Shubrangshu Roy Shadows Beneath the Sky, opens with Mira’s world pressed in tightly around her, as though every breath she takes has to fight its way through invisible walls of worry. At sixteen, she often feels like a spectator in her own life, watching her classmates laugh and chatter as if they belong to a…
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Colors of Kumartuli
Pritam Sarkar Chapter 1 – The Arrival at Kumartuli unfolds with the vivid sensory chaos of Kolkata’s legendary artisan quarter. Seventeen-year-old Tanya steps into the narrow, winding lanes of Kumartuli, her senses immediately overwhelmed by the vibrant intensity of the place. The air is thick with the earthy scent of wet clay, mingling with turpentine,…
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The Last Bell of Raipur High
Rhea Malhotra Part 1 – The Announcement The morning bell at Raipur High had always been shrill enough to cut through sleep, chatter, even monsoon thunder. But that day it sounded different—longer, harsher, like the metal clanged with purpose. Students rushed into the assembly hall, uniforms sticking with the last drizzle of rain, shoes leaving…
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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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The Last Broadcast
Ayesha Malhotra Part 1 – Silence After the Flare The desert had always been quiet, but after the flare, silence was something else entirely. It pressed against the windows, settled on the roof tiles, thickened the air between words. Before, there had been the hum of ceiling fans, the tinny burst of radio jingles from…
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Swipe Left on Destiny
Radhika Sharma 1 Ananya Sharma’s life, to any outsider, looked like something that could be wrapped neatly in a report card or a family photo framed in the drawing room. Sixteen, sharp-eyed, with her hair always tied back in a disciplined ponytail and her school uniform creased to perfection, she seemed to glide through her…
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When the Bell Rings
Emily D’Souza I first noticed Mira on a Monday the way you notice something you’ve lost and then convince yourself it had been there all along. She was at the far end of the corridor, standing in a square of sunlight from the skylight, hair catching dust motes. I was fifteen, new to St. Augustine’s,…
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The Forgotten Hostel
Pinaki Chouhan The morning air in Guwahati buzzed with anticipation as a group of high school students gathered at the city bus stand, their backpacks slung over shoulders and cameras dangling from necks, ready for a cultural trip to Shillong. Excited chatter filled the bus as friends jostled for window seats, their voices blending with…
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Metro Love Chronicles
Drishan Sengupta 1 Every morning, the Yellow Line of the Delhi Metro was a theater of hurried footsteps, weary eyes, and the rustle of bags pressing against metal poles. Aarav Malhotra boarded the train with the air of someone who did not belong to the chaos around him—his crisp white shirt tucked neatly into tailored…
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The Kite of Dreams
Nikhil Pandey 1 The sun hung low over Ahmedabad, spilling its amber glow across the rooftops that seemed to stretch endlessly into the horizon. Every terrace was alive with color, movement, and laughter, the city preparing for the festival of Uttarayan. High above, kites of all shapes and hues fought against the playful gusts, dancing,…
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Almost, Always
Rahul Shukla 1 The night was quiet, with only the occasional hum of crickets breaking the stillness, when Rivan Malhotra and Aaryel Sen sneaked out of their homes to meet beneath the old banyan tree at the edge of their neighborhood. They were twelve then, armed with nothing but a pocketknife borrowed from Rivan’s uncle…