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Barters of Time

With great expectations, a man and his wife leave their son to a foreign land so that he can fulfil his dreams. When he settles down there and nearly forgets them, the father writes a letter to call him home before it is too late. Anupam writes a poem.

Mission Chitra

Kavya is itching to step in when she realises that her domestic help Chitra is being abused at home. Vani’s story explores the funny and sometimes-murky world of ‘social work’ in the country.  

Spark – October 2018 Issue

Get set to escape from the pulls of this world with our October issue! Themed ‘Escape’, read our poetry special on how our contributors interpreted what escape conjures in their minds. There’s fiction as well, and a book review and a Slice of Life contribution too.

City-dweller’s Requiem

Gowri, an engineer, often imagines an alternate history in which she studied English Literature. What would her days have been like? Would she have grown to love words and their meaning even more than she does today? This poem captures her flights of fancy which are her escape from reality.

Bras That Bind

Meera’s story is about a woman’s complex relationship with her bra, and what its less-than-impressive size symbolizes.

A Fairy Tale Life

An escape that leads to an unexpected set of events in a young boy’s life…M. Mohankumar pens a poem.

A Bookstore Rescue

In Parth Pandya’s poem, books come to the rescue of a man bogged down by life’s difficulties, and help him make his much-needed escape.

Escape

By pitting contrasting elements in a pair against one another, and by showing how any escape from the one to the other retains something of the former, Srinivas’ poem highlights the idea that to escape from any given thing is to be inevitably tied to that thing.

Ramblings of a Shadow

Sunil tells the story of a shadow that sits in darkness and dreams of freedom. As it unentangles itself from its reality, the shadow recalls memories and envisions its future. And somewhere between the two, it wonders what freedom is for one who has never been free.