Monologue
By Rimli Bhattacharya
Yet all I needed was that girl to remind me of my lost love. I wanted to creep out of my craziness. The more I tried, the more I whimpered. Did the dreamer in him really deserve death?
Short Story: Re-dial
By Swaty Mitra
Rohit walked into the lane to his parked car and drove slowly away from the procession, the noise, the voice, the girl who used to be, into the settling cold and darkness of the wintry evening.
Short Story: Poorvi and tequila sunrise
By Moinak Dutta
A song played at the bar. ‘Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy…’ Poorvi took the shots. They were lovely. There was a slight burning feeling in her throat. But that was better, much better than all the burns she had borne within.
Four Poems
By Fatima Zehra
loving you came in
pieces; empty glances,
broken promises, and everything in
between.
Two poems
By Feby Joseph
I always took a moment to look
At the calmness that lay afterwards.
At the poignant beauty of destruction
The charred remains of a life rewritten
Three Poems
By Parag Mallik
K icking you in the chest with feet of dejection and pessimism,
L ovingly looping around your neck with
M alice mangling every will to survive,
N ever able to cross the flames of happiness.
Philosophical Discussions with a Lover
By Anirudh Kala
This was fun, she thought. Who could have guessed? Philosophy as turn on. She was a girl who liked to experiment. And she warmed up.
Five Poems
By Goirick Brahmachari
The stoned heat that grows into your day
The night winds of partings – half-constructed subways
Your Deccan heart breathes in
My longing
Through the hazy, yellow, cyber highways.
Of love, marriage and conquest: The changing regimes of patriarchy
By Abhiruchi Ranjan
Last year, the self-styled custodians of Hindu patriarchy, Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha wrote to the dalit UPSC topper, Tina Dabi’s parents, reminding them of their social responsibility to persuade her Kashmiri Muslim boyfriend for a “ghar wapsi”. The prospective matrimonial alliance of a popular Hindu woman with a Muslim man was seen by the Mahasabha as a dangerous precedent.
Three Poems
By Parag Mallik
I wish I could stand by you.
And by the little girl who struggles to rub the dust
Off her eyes,
In an effort to see clearly
The wakeful nightmare she is a part of.
“Why Love matters for Justice”
By Urba Malik
The very idea of loving beyond the traditionally set parameters of caste, religion, class or color is liberating, not humiliating for us. In fact, what is humiliating is the idea of constraining one’s emotions under the garb of societal honor; what is insulting is the exercise of societal control over someone’s choice.
Love is Time: Three Poems
By Syamantakshobhan Basu
I wear you like an old watch
Which has stopped exactly
At the moment we met last.
Cafe Dissensus Everyday 