Known Turf

This piece was written for The Small Picture on December 6, in memory of my grandfather, who left so much work unfinished, so much unsaid:...

I cannot fully express the nature of my regret at not having done this post before. I had meant to, as soon as I walked out of the hall aft...

For a while now, I have been thinking about the need for 'drama' in stories, especially scripts. It is taken for granted that for a...

Reviewed ' Alternate Realities: Love in the lives of Muslim Women ' for Time Out . Sharing the text below, with some personal addit...

A poem published in Cordite.  " Sometimes I wonder if... " Sometimes I Wonder if our whole world is a third world a st...

 ' Swiss Lace Blouse ' was the 'poem of the week' at The Missing Slate recently. One fine morning I will open my eyes. E...

I don't know if I've mentioned this booklet, published by Vikas Samvad two years ago. It is really just a reporter's diary, bu...

Here's another poem . It comes from having watched the Hindi film Ek Thi Dayan , and its sadly confused take on the subject. The idea...

Dear Jet Airways There are some things you just don't do. Such as telling a passenger who has shown up with a confirmed ticket, t...

The landscape is grim—a mix of rock and mud that yields at the slightest provocation. But the wind does extraordinary things to it, cutti...

Have often thought about sanity, the people we consider sane, and the forces that push some of us beyond - into that other place in the hea...

I have a new short story out. It is the story of a man who has almost nothing to live for, except the fact that a woman called Noora still ...

A few days ago, former Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar Sushil Kumar Modi reportedly tweeted: “Advaniji has failed to gauge the public mood”...

There is a stockpile of shared grief within each of us. It threatens to render the taste of life ash on our tongues. Each riot, every famin...

There is something about a rally or protest that announces itself even when it is not announced audibly. Like girls walking down the stree...

A few months ago, I read about a law that makes it mandatory for Chinese citizens to visit elderly parents.  My immediate thought was that ...

Last week, I’d mentioned the Majority and its role in keeping a democracy healthy. Our rulers are decided by a majority vote. It could be j...

If we were to make a list of the most urgent problems in India, I can safely bet that ‘politicians’ would be on everyone’s list. They might...

By now, you would have read some reams about what stops our great nation from being truly free etcetera.  I’ve been reading a lot of boo...

I was slightly jealous when I read about this Kerela initiative – 'e-toilets' at government medical colleges. These toilets are ca...