The choice of a birthday gift presents an anxious challenge for a little girl and her mother. The grandmother, though, sees an opportunity in their predicament. Chandramohan Nair pens a tale of a birthday party with an unexpected outcome.
Knocking at the doors of mind, reminiscences tease one about the promises and dreams that couldn’t be realised. This poem by Parminder Singh talks of celebrations of mutual failures in keeping a relationship intact through moments of adversity.
Poila Baisakh is a celebration of great significance among the people of Bengal. ARTOHUS explores the historical and cultural backdrop to this festival and also recounts his experience of witnessing the first ever Mangal Shobhajatra organised in India on Poila Baisakh this year.
THE LOUNGE | SLICE OF LIFE After finishing a picture-perfect vacation, Jyothi Murthy gets nostalgic about an old “not-so-picture-perfect trip” when the world was devoid of the internet or cashless transactions but full of human interactions. She muses if the world lost out on something more essential in the name of planning and being prepared.
THE LOUNGE | INNER JOURNEY We all want to be happy in life. But we seek it out at the destination conditional upon reaching a goal. What we fail to realise is that happiness is our core state of being. It need not be chased outside. When we live by gratitude and contentment, we work with, not for, happiness; and we find true happiness, that is not disturbed by whether we achieve or fail, writes Snigdha Mohanty.
We asked our contributors the question, “What ideas or thoughts does the word NIGHT invoke in you?” The answers came to us in the form of poems, stories and art – which is the line-up we have for you in this issue! In a way, this has turned out to be a poetry special with the poems focusing on such diverse and interesting aspects of ‘Night’. Do check out the issue and let us know how you liked it!
How exactly do nights at suburbs look and feel like? Parag Mallik’s poem shares some memories.
Chandramohan Nair narrates a tale of unusual happenings around new moon night in faraway Srikakulam.
Midnight brings along reckonings that has a quality and dimension all its own. The silken threads of each hour bring forth a meditative like trance. Everything is silent – yet everything moves: the landscape, winds and restless cities. A poem by Sneha Subramanian Kanta.