• English - Suspense - Young Adult

    The Forgotten Festival

    Rahul Malhotra One The summer sun was already high when Rohan, Anya, Kabir, and Tara found themselves assigned to the same group for their history project, a mundane school task about the “lost traditions of Himachal.” At first, they treated it with typical teenage indifference, expecting a few hours of research in the library and a quick, perfunctory presentation. Rohan, with his love for photography, suggested documenting old artifacts in the town; Kabir, always the skeptic, rolled his eyes at the thought of dusty legends; Tara, the organized one, insisted on interviews with the elders; and Anya, curious and restless,…

  • English - Young Adult

    The Last Rank

    Debdeep Banerjee 1 The bell rang like a verdict, harsh and metallic, echoing across the sterile halls of Vidya Central Institute-93. Pratik Sen remained seated, hunched over a tablet that had just blinked red, displaying the same damning notification he had seen every day since he was old enough to read: “Rank: 1000000 – Terminal Track.” Around him, the classroom buzzed with muted chatter as other students filed out, their faces glowing with quiet pride or sullen resignation, depending on where their numbers fell. Rank was everything here. From seat placements to lunch portions, from air-conditioned exam halls to future…