In this story by Archana, a young woman meets someone after going through a breakup. Confused about naming the kind of relationship they share, the two people draw comfort from their company in the short time that they borrow from each other’s lives.
Sroojana tells the story of how twenty, in a society that glorifies the sweet sixteens, twenty-fives and fifties, is a forgotten age. However, twenty is when you’re on the verge of the rest of your life, reeling from the puberty-ridden years of adolescence, which sparks the feeling of freedom, comfort… and joy.
In the lives of two women brought together by circumstances, joy once lost slowly finds its way back. Anupama Krishnakumar writes a short story.
Mandira’s story describes the different associations of greenery that two young cousins have. For the adolescent, green becomes a colour she grows-up to abhor because it stands for unpleasant past and unrequited love. For the other though, green is synonymous with childhood and an escape like no other.
As the storm clouds gather over the hills of Garhwal, Maagi Devi remembers her first trip with her husband, to the distant coastal town of Calicut and the excitement they shared as they began their journey together as husband and wife. As life took an unexpected turn, Maagi remembers a promise that lies beyond the sea. Shweta tells the story.
In the confines of an AC coach, the narrator struggles to reconcile herself to sharing a few hours of her life with people who check none of the boxes in the list in her head that lays out what a well-ordered existence looks like. Renuka describes the journey.
Ankita’s story is about someone who anticipated the journey of a lifetime but found that he was left behind. How did he make sense of it all? Where did he end up? Does the absence of an experience make us know it in a way that we wouldn’t have if we had had it?
As a hot summer day unfolds, life unravels in mysterious ways for four people. Anupama Krishnakumar writes a story filled with sugar, chilli, pepper and salt flavoured moments.
In Sarba Roy’s story, a young man goes through the monotony of a normal summer night, only to retire with a chill of hope.