• English - Fiction

    Flavours of the Forgotten Lane

    June 16, 2025 - By 

    Abeer Khurana The Man with the Empty Tiffin Every day at exactly 2:15 p.m., after the lunch crowd had dispersed and the oil had cooled in the karahis, a man in a faded brown kurta appeared at the entrance of Parathewali Gali with an empty tiffin and a look that was hard to read. His beard was trimmed but uneven, his eyes carried the weight of too many forgotten memories, and his slippers had long lost the war with the cobbled Old Delhi stones. He never ordered from the menu. Instead, he would quietly lean into the counter of the…

  • English - Fiction

    Ashes of Tomorrow

    June 13, 2025 - By 

    Rani Westwood Part 1 The sky had not been blue in seventeen years. People still talked about the last clear morning in whispers, like it was a folk tale passed down through ash-coated generations. They said the light used to feel warm, not searing. That clouds were once white and fluffy, not permanent smears of smoke stretching from one side of the horizon to the other. But I was born three years after the Last Sky, so to me, the world had always been grey. I adjusted the oxygen mask over my face and tightened the seals of my jacket.…

  • English - Fiction

    The Whispering Forest

    June 12, 2025 - By 

    Risa Kharkongor Part 1 The clouds hung low over Mawlynnong, like thick blankets of cotton pressing gently upon the treetops, as if they were listening to a secret only the forest knew. Twelve-year-old Lari Khongdup stood barefoot on the damp earth, feeling the mud cling to her toes, the scent of moss, bamboo, and wild turmeric swirling in the morning air. Her heart thumped like a tribal drumbeat inside her chest, both from excitement and fear. Her mother believed she was still asleep in her bamboo cot, curled beneath a faded woolen quilt. But Lari had slipped out before sunrise,…

  • English - Fiction

    After the Wedding: Siya’s Silence

    June 9, 2025 - By 

    Neelima Verma The Wedding Dream The mehendi hadn’t yet faded from her palms when Siya stepped into the grand foyer of her new home—her new home. The deep maroon stain curled along her fingers in delicate paisley patterns, a reminder of the rituals, the singing, the whispered jokes between cousins, and the scent of jasmine that still clung to her hair. Her wrists were heavy with glass bangles, red and gold, and they jingled with every hesitant step she took across the marble floor of the Malhotra mansion. Her heart fluttered with a strange mix of excitement and nervousness. At…

  • English - Crime - Fiction

    The Minister’s Mistress

    June 8, 2025 - By 

    Mira Devika The Bride of Power The rain in Delhi had a peculiar scent that evening — part jasmine, part diesel, part something burning somewhere far away. The same scent Meher Kapoor remembered from her childhood, watching her father practice speeches before the mirror, shirt sleeves rolled up, his eyes alight with some unknowable fire. But now, Meher was twenty-four, and her father was a framed memory garlanded with marigolds in their ancestral home. She stood in front of a mirror in the bridal chamber of the Oberoi, a deep red lehenga clinging to her like memory. Bangles jangling, lip…

  • English - Fiction

    Instagram Feminist

    June 7, 2025 - By 

    Reshmi Sinha Part 1 Misty scrolled through her phone as the afternoon sun slid gently across her balcony tiles. Her fingers paused, then moved rapidly over the keyboard, tapping out a caption beneath a carefully edited selfie. “Patriarchy has no place in our bodies. #MyBodyMyRules #FeministVoices #BurnTheNorms.” Within seconds, the likes began to roll in—heart-shaped dopamine boosts. She knew her angle, her aesthetic, her voice. On Instagram, she was fierce, unrelenting, a warrior wrapped in reels and carousels. But in the quiet of her one-bedroom flat in South Kolkata, Misty often stared at the mirror and felt like an impostor.…

  • English - Fiction

    Brush and Bombay

    June 6, 2025 - By 

    Sameer Bhide 1 The train screeched to a halt with a metallic groan, and the smell of coal, iron, and a hundred kinds of human fatigue hung heavy in the air. Bimal stepped down onto the platform of Victoria Terminus with a battered canvas bag, a portfolio case under one arm, and an envelope stitched into the lining of his shirt containing twenty-six rupees. Bombay. The city of cinema, sweat, and stories. The year was 1956, and Bimal was twenty-four years old. He stood for a moment, absorbing the chaos around him. Vendors shouting about chai and vada pav. Porters…

  • English - Fiction

    The Bookstore Manifesto

    June 4, 2025 - By 

    Ruhi Nagral There are places in every city that live a secret life. In Delhi, one such place existed just off the chaos of Netaji Subhash Marg—a crooked alleyway in Daryaganj where noise dissolved into silence and the present seemed to pause. At the end of that alley stood an old haveli, its faded sandstone façade hidden behind tangled bougainvillaea and dusty electric wires. If you looked carefully, you’d find a narrow staircase, half-eaten by time, leading to a pair of heavy wooden doors painted a shade of blue the sky no longer remembered. This was Paperweight, a bookstore that…

  • English - Fiction

    The Lighthouse Keeper’s Daughter

    May 30, 2025 - By 

    Nandini Rao The waves crashed relentlessly against the jagged cliffs of Sundar Island, a speck of land lost in the vastness of the Arabian Sea. For more than a century, the island had been home to the old lighthouse, perched high above the swirling waters — a beacon of hope and warning to the passing ships. Few dared to set foot on this isolated rock, save for the lighthouse keepers who guarded its light, passing the torch from one generation to another. The last storm had been fierce. For days, the skies rumbled, and the sea roared with unnatural fury.…