• Crime - English

    Raktarekha

    July 8, 2025 - By 

    Niharika S. Rao The Lok Sabha was unusually loud for a Tuesday. It was Budget Week, and the chamber buzzed with tension as news channels lined up outside, their OB vans broadcasting red-tickered hysteria. Inside, Home Minister Veer Pratap Singh stood tall in a beige Nehru jacket, sleeves rolled to the elbows like a man ready for war. His voice thundered across the hall, echoing with the force of someone who had weathered revolutions and riots. “And let it be known,” he declared, slamming his hand on the podium, “this government will never bow to blackmail. The truth will be…

  • English - Fiction

    The Fifth Protocol

    June 28, 2025 - By 

    Neel Kashyap Part 1: The Minister Who Knew Too Much The monsoon had arrived early in New Delhi, but the rain did little to cool the simmering corridors of power. The South Block offices glistened under streetlights, guarded by protocol and paranoia. At 2:03 a.m., a white government Scorpio pulled into the back entrance of the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs. Inside, Minister Prabir Kundu sat motionless, his lips taut and fingers trembling over a brown leather file embossed with the Ashoka emblem. He shouldn’t have had this file. But he did. Earlier that evening, Kundu had received an anonymous courier…

  • English - Suspense

    Pink Saree and a Political Murder

    June 24, 2025 - By 

    Maya Sharma Part 1: The Last Rally in Pink The rain had stopped just minutes before the rally began. A pink haze lingered over the Kolkata skyline, smeared with leftover monsoon clouds and political slogans painted hastily across aging walls. Shanti Ghosh, dressed in her signature pink Banarasi saree with gold-threaded lotus motifs, stood on the makeshift bamboo stage at the heart of Ward 34. Her voice, usually mellow and diplomatic, now sliced through the damp air like a blade. “We are not just mothers and wives,” she said, her voice echoing across the crowd, “we are builders, protectors, and…

  • English - Fiction

    Shadows of the State

    June 23, 2025 - By 

    Ravi Srinivasan Part 1: The Letter and the Leak It started not with a murder, but with an envelope—sealed, unmarked, and slipped under the newsroom door of The Dakshara Daily on a monsoon-drenched morning. The building still smelled faintly of damp paper and printer ink when Ananya Raghavan picked it up. She was the first one in, as always, her raincoat dripping near her desk, the hiss of boiling water already building in the pantry behind her. She slit the envelope open with a metal ruler, her journalist’s instinct prickling even before the contents were revealed. Inside: a single typed…

  • Drama - English

    Headlines & Crossfire

    June 19, 2025 - By 

    Aaryan Dastur The Breaking Point The newsroom of Global Pulse buzzed like a swarm of hornets, monitors flashing with real-time footage, phones ringing off their hooks, and the giant ticker on the far wall counting down the minutes to prime time. Rhea Sen stood at the heart of it all, arms folded, eyes fixed on the wall screen where rival network The Daily Eye was airing a bombshell report. Her jaw clenched slightly as Kabir Mathur’s voice boomed from the broadcast — sharp, confident, manipulative. “Sources inside the Ministry confirm that the leaked budget documents came directly from the Finance…

  • Crime - English

    The Last Witness

    June 13, 2025 - By 

    Aditya Nandan. Part 1: The Opening Argument The judge’s gavel landed with a thud, cutting through the low murmur of the packed Delhi courtroom. Justice Arunabh Sen, silver-haired and unsmiling, adjusted his glasses and surveyed the room with the calm of a man who had seen too much and believed too little. “This court is now in session for the State versus Aryan Khanna,” he said. “Charged under IPC Section 302—murder. Let us proceed.” At the prosecution bench, Senior Public Prosecutor Asha Gautam stood up. She was in her early forties, sharply dressed in a black silk saree and an…