The State of Melancholia
Looking at my somewhat grim face in the mirror, I remembered what a writer from…
August, 2015
Welcome to the Jungle
Once again, the law has taken its own (murky and dubious) course, and once again,…
Mama Gramah Mattur
You know how you always miss what is right in front of you? That has…
Of Swimming Pools and Land Pools
I have seen the future, and there are no motorcycles. No bicycles either, nor buses. There…
Ismat and Ayaan
How does a secular intellectual feminist perspective emerge when one is raised in a highly patriarchal…
The Free Radical
“Puzzled, I stare at the skein not knowing which end I should pull so that…
The Crooked Line
Ismat Chughtai, the most provocative and rebellious among women writers in Urdu, wrote voluminously until she was…
How Long Can A River Be Held Back By A Dam?
When I saw that tiny collection with her name on the spine on a public library…
To Be A Gentle Coloniser
In a letter she wrote to me in response to my translation of her story ‘Do…
Woman
Woman…woman…woman… Very good, disloyal, loyal, this and that, and god knows what else. In every country…