Essays

Take Me Home

Saaz Aggarwal

The sadness, confusion and fear one felt as a young child never does go away, realised Saaz Aggarwal as she walked the corridors of the boarding school that was once her ‘home’

The Day of the Pawn

Sohini Chattopadhyay

Gobind Sharma runs a dhaba in Gurgaon. But when the clock strikes four, he becomes a master chess player

One Night in Bollywood

Marian Brehmer

What it means to be a foreign extra in an Indian movie

Writer Unblocked

Aastha Atray Banan

Writing a Mills & Boon novel rekindled a romance in Aastha Atray Banan’s life—the one with words. For, it finally allowed her to let go of the fear of being judged as a writer

A Lifetime in Ink

Isa EsAsi

A travelling tattoo artist, Isa EsAsi carries memories of the many friendships she made across the world on her own body

Ashok Kumar: The Evergreen Hero

Saadat Hasan Manto

On Ashok Kumar’s birth centenary, we bring you an excerpt from Saadat Hasan Manto’s brutally honest essay on his friend and colleague.

Death of the Reader

Tabish Khair

Readers who ignore historical silences in fiction by authors like Zadie Smith and Khalid Hosseini are just buying into the feel-good myth of multiculturalism

Ugly Duckling Syndrome

Ranbir

No one is entirely happy with how s/he looks. But Ranbir was fixated, and his need for physical perfection unknowingly made him a social misfit

Joynal Abedin was a hunter and poacher. But two accidents changed his life: an unborn buffalo calf’s untimely death and a forest officer’s squashing by a rogue elephant. He has now dedicated his life to wildlife conservation in Assam’s Dibru Saikhowa forest

Vroom with a View

Rishad Saam Mehta

For years, he dreamt of riding out on his motorcycle and finding adventure, like the heroes of his books. But one should treasure every little trip while waiting for that big one to materialise