Known Turf

The meaning of spit changes with context. Literature is full of spitters and the spat upon, from Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice to Khushw...

Yes, yes, Facebook. Carry on spying. I visited Lithub. Show me all the Lithub you've got now. The worst material there might be on Lith...

New book, published by Cambridge University Press. Out today. A brief extract is available here: https://ninedotsprize.org/extract-f...

Behind all funerary efforts and expenses is the urgent need to confront the loss of someone with whom you had (and continue to have) a uniq...

Here's a new short story, recently published in The Charles River Journal. The story is called 'Jhimmi'. It was written after I...

One thing is clear. No heroes wear capes. They wear makeshift masks, often just a kerchief folded over and tied around their noses. Slender...

I walked away that afternoon with a heavy heart. When I looked around the building, I saw an open terrace where laundry was drying, and lar...

My eyes barely left my phone screen. It was like being in a tunnel where the roof has fallen in, our collective hands bloodied from trying ...

There's been this saree tag doing the rounds on Facebook. I was tagged too. I am not in a mood to post happy pictures. However, since m...

My mother attempted to buy vegetables last week, right outside the gates of the housing complex, and she witnessed police officials prevent...

When was the last time there was a massive public uproar about our leaders concealing truth, or flip-flopping on facts presented in court, ...

We like to believe that justice is served when a murderer goes to the gallows. Death offers closure. It also shields us from the awful trut...

मेरे नाना साहब की लिखी एक बहुत पुरानी नज़्म. उस ज़माने में वो लखनऊ यूनिवर्सिटी में पढ़ रहे थे. उम्र क़रीब 22 साल रही होगी (नज़्म पे तारीख़ 1938 ल...

In other news, Facebook has finally successfully figured me out. It has my profile down pat:interested in literature (writing), films, cult...

Somebody on Twitter called me a 'corona virus ki shakal ki...' (other words followed) It was obviously meant as an insult. Made me...

Less going out of the house (which I do reluctantly at the best of times) means more reading. Over the last few weeks, between deadlines, a...

He could have said that peaceful protest is an inalienable democratic right. If he had said it before, or even after winning the state as...

Women's day, so I'm linking to the first documentary I made in 2015. It's online and free to watch now. I'll also say ...

I have a new short story out in the Massachusetts Review. The story's called  Mallika Reflects on the Events of Discount Monday.  The j...

अली जवाद ज़ैदी साहब की एक नज़्म जो उन्होंने 1941 में लिखी थी, लखनऊ जेल में, जहाँ वो जंग-ए-आज़ादी में शामिल होने की वजह से क़ैद थे।  गोली के ज़द...