Fiction & Poetry
Sins that can’t be washed away
Like some perverted Pavlovian desire,
the wafting smell of fresh soap
that fills up the air in the bath
has my pupils dilate when walking out.
By Hritvika Lakhera
June 1, 2023
Poems by Nhylar
1. A Certain Type of Life since the age of 16 I idealised a certain type of life involving certain…
By Nhylar
July 1, 2020
Poem: Age 7
tender lips that had forgotten, momentarily, the taste of mother’s milk and couldn’t tell the silence of the womb from…
By Mukesh
February 1, 2014
Poem: ‘The thing about crushes’
The thing about crushes, is that eventually they stop being that. I’m not saying love dies or anything, I’m just saying, that Love never was and sometimes it takes a few months of tumbling across perfumed bedsheets
By Breton Lalama
February 1, 2021
Poem: ‘A debauchee’s ode to self-love’
All I have known of loving men is emotional labour, And by that, I mean back-breaking, soul-sucking toil, Oh, the relief of carrying nothing but yourself, Oh, the relief of taking nothing but pleasure from their sex
By Malini Gopalakrishnan
February 1, 2021
Patriarchy Won’t Let Me Masturbate
That’s all the big roles and ethics
All there to fulfil.
Another task,
Another box to tick
Another concrete path to rush
Quick, simple and straight.
By Shashwat
June 16, 2023
On the day my lover would die
I would once again be theirs, in memory, on the day my lover would die.
By Sara Haque
April 18, 2024
June 1, 2023
Murderously simple thing
“She rightly read the moment while I stumbled through a second-hand text.” – Jeanette Winterson But second-hand texts lay…
By Carol D'Souza
April 5, 2021
Lovers as plants in a kitchen garden
“Life’s too small without freshly cut coriander
Generously sprinkled on kadhai chicken.
Mint leaves blitzing their way with tomatoes
Ripe from the vine to the fingers dripping chutney –
Fragrances of earth between all this concrete.”
By Lavanya Arora
July 17, 2023
Love belongs to me too
I see people and places,
Couples and crushes
I hear giggles and whispers.
These are the secrets untold to me.
By Gayathri
March 1, 2023
Lockdown Logs
Why does the gap feel so wide no matter how much I explain, again and again, that I do not mean to hurt him… hurt any of them? I feel torn… but Amma and Appa need my help at home. Lockdown has been so damn hard.
By Kaveri
April 18, 2024
Living in Manbir Colony
Days upon days rushed by, tatoh chiya, alu thukpa, chicken cowrie, and beer kept us warm during the rejections.
By Hitaishi Gautam
April 18, 2024