-January, 2022 The dull, orange moon was hanging there, a dusty, swollen ache. The guard said, Close your phone– you said, friend, it’s just the moon. He shrugged his shoulders and looked down– what was left to say? This waning…
The emperor is worried: first the plague, and now the council of ministers turning against his favourite viceroy– and what of the guilds– how can one trust those who build, weave or reap? It’s time to take strong action: re-invade…
The two year old child is kicking the mud outside the flooded playground: I don’t like the rain, I want to go back, take me home, take me home, take me home! On a flyover in Punjab, an old man…
-writing from Tihar Jail, Umar Khalid quotes Faiz Ahmad Faiz In the photos the young lovers post, they are smiling as they sip from the same bottle of cola, they are sharing a plate of chaat, they are sitting on…
You said you’d been weighing the cost of self-censorship and looked pained when I let slip a laugh. Forgive me, my friend, I could not explain: it was not about you, but what I can’t say.
-January 1, 2022 Flocks of sheep drift down from the hills, like dry leaves blown free by a gust of winter wind– they block highways, refuse any compromise. In Lutyens’ Delhi, the Home Minister paces and shouts: Who’s in charge…