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1963: death of a poet

It is 1963, I am recording live the last moments of Sylvia’s life. She invites me as she doesn’t understand livecast.   “Have a cake” she says, “Baked in my…

Some pious deeds

While razing the house of a Muslim family and setting them on fire with kerosene the man was thinking of the Buddhist monastery he planned to visit in Bhutan. It…

The somnambulist

not that i sleep and walk or walk and sleep or read and sleep or sleep and read not that my head nods when a tractor collides headlong with a…

Ram Aur Shyam

Farmers on tractors and battalions behind barbed wire shoot “nayi saal mubarak ho” at the stroke of midnight while nursing their injuries and preparing for the first battle of 2021.…

Oh! These kisans!!!

These kisans are an ungracious lot. What a bunch of ignorant fools! We give them concessions. They say they need rights. We offer Ambani’s bazaar. They prefer mandis. We offer…

Two Covid-19 viruses meet Albert Camus

The world was calm now. And silent. Only the birds chirped tweeted sang cawed. Only the animals barked mewed mooed growled. Only the river gurgled. Only the sky thundered. Only…

Love in the time of the Karuna virus

no one bothered till the Karuna virus caught the police chanting the Hindu god’s name and chasing Muhammedans along with the mobs. the virus had its miraculous debut in Shaheen…

Three pellets and a cradle

biscuit a pellet hit her small palm that clutched a half eaten biscuit. she broke into a rasping wail "bikoot mama bikoot" the biscuit fell to the ground near her,…

A series in 4 episodes

episode 1: a regiment of old people, more bones than flesh, are thrown into an army truck. to be unloaded in the woods near some godforsaken border. but, a fierce…

As If a

As if a girl named Asifa does not exist, didn’t exist, will not exist As if Asifa was never raped, never tortured, never ravaged As if Asifa is a myth,…

Man With The Solar Brain

His brain awash with solar rays The man with the solar brain Walks past the cotton fields And the mobile towers Listening to the tweets and The songs of extinct…

The Arithmetic of Protest

The pairs of feet that passed him by in a second Equals 2 x 60x 60x24x 766 = 13,23,64,800, say 13 crores. The 2011 census pegs the population of Kerala…

The Gift

You are a gift. Wrapped. Untouched. In an islet.

The Anthem

a black man sat in the Tagore theatre balcony and an old man with a flowing white beard sat next to him while the Anthem was being played. the rest…

72

This Day, 72 infants sounded the bugles. 72 infants hoisted the flag. 72 infants saluted the flag. 72 infants formed the infantry.

How To Lynch A Man

it’s really simple. what you need first is a man, preferably alone, poor or looking poor, carrying no weapons and exhausted from work, starving, and apparently belonging to a lower…

The Snow Girls

The battle lines were drawn up. The snow girls with books in backpacks. The olive green troopers with guns. An eagle perched on a white cloud relayed the proceedings to…

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