January 18, 2026
Joy Dillon wrestles Spanish with a Caribbean tongue, and Selina Sheth meets a silver-tongued gent in the bustling heart of Delhi.
Know Your Place! — A True Story
Humour: Joy Dillon
Excerpt: Know where you is, and especially where you going in this world! I begging you, from the bottom of my heart!
Vicky Walrus
Humour: Selina Sheth
Excerpt: ‘Fast Wheels! Great Meals! Best Deals!’ So promises The Walrus.
January 11, 2026
Jeremy Turner enjoys another day of sun in L.A. with a wife and a two-year-old in tow, and Michael Smith concludes his early-90s Eastern Bloc adventures in the Austrian capital.
How to Visit L.A. with a Young Child
Travelogue: Jeremy Turner
Excerpt: Capital T travel with a two-year-old turned out far from perfect; we left a failed Airbnb choice and the body of a departed soul in our wake.
Drawing Back the Curtain: Russia 1991 & Eastern Europe 1992 (Part 5 – Vienna, Austria)
Culture/Travel: Michael Smith
Excerpt: There is a Chinese saying (some would say a curse): “May you live in interesting times.”
January 4, 2026
Sabyasachi Roy plots schemes to infuriate and win back moody relations, and Rohit Karir swims through libraries with coffee by his side.
How to Apologise for Being Born Incorrectly, According to My Family WhatsApp Group
Humour: Sabyasachi Roy
Excerpt: You’ve disrupted the ancestral algorithm. Now your name is blinking. Now the aunties are circling. It’s time.
‘Booked’ and ‘Java by my side’
Humour: Rohit Karir
Excerpt: My heart skips a beat when a paragraph grabs hold of me, and the search ends.
December 28, 2025
Michael Smith heads to Hungary on his early-90s Eastern Bloc trail, and Sayan Sarkar beholds royalty in Corbett’s backyard.
Drawing Back the Curtain: Russia 1991 & Eastern Europe 1992 (Part 4 – Budapest, Hungary)
Culture/Travel: Michael Smith
Excerpt: The city of Budapest, sometimes referred to back then as the Paris of Eastern Europe, was formed from three separate towns straddling the Danube—Buda, Pest and Obuda.
A Royal Encounter
Travel: Sayan Sarkar
Excerpt: While it is true that the beauty of the jungle is mesmerising, we feel a bit dejected as our hopes of seeing the elusive Bengal tiger seem to fade away.
December 21, 2025
Sabyasachi Roy shares love notes on birdwatching, and Devin James Leonard has an audition of a lifetime.
Modern Dating Red Flags: As Interpreted by a Birdwatcher
Humour: Sabyasachi Roy
Excerpt: Specimen 5: The Hobby Cultist. Latin Name: Singulus obsessionae. They don’t date—they recruit.
The Audition
Humour: Devin James Leonard
Excerpt: “I’ll work on my French accent.” The casting director wagged his head and rolled his eyes at that.
December 14, 2025
Michael Smith’s Eastern Bloc trail finds him in 1992 Prague, and Panchami seeks solace in stories as the world burns around her.
Drawing Back the Curtain: Russia 1991 & Eastern Europe 1992 (Part 3 – Prague, Czechoslovakia)
Culture/Travel: Michael Smith
Excerpt: The fog had lifted and we found ourselves residing in an example of Soviet architectural chic, a massive 22-storey, 168-roomed block of flats that had been converted into a hotel.
Reading Shafak in a Burning World: The Art of Storytelling
Culture: Panchami
Excerpt: What began as reading ‘about’ the region transcended into reading ‘from’ the region. Shafak’s work was a beacon, my entry into literature from West Asia.
December 7, 2025
Sarah Das Gupta hitchhikes through Ireland and imperial history on her road to Limerick, and MJ Huntsgood has tips on how to keep writing and score a literary agent.
The Road to Limerick
Culture/Humour/Travel: Sarah Das Gupta
Excerpt: We were hoping to hitch a lift up the beautiful West Coast to the city of Limerick where we had arranged to stay for a few days.
How to Go from Book Idea to Acquiring a Literary Agent in Less Than One Year
Craft/Culture/Humour: MJ Huntsgood
Excerpt: If you’re tender-hearted like me, I highly recommend Reddit. They give gentle, soul-crushing reviews.
November 30, 2025
Catherine Rossi commits unsung human acts like a beloved sitcom character, and Mike Nagel ponders the conjunction of humans and animals, trying to save the latter in the process.
Franklin is the Big Salad
Culture/Humour: Catherine Rossi
Excerpt: I was exactly like George when he bought a big salad for Elaine then became irate when Elaine thanked someone else.
Man Vs. Wild
Culture/Humour: Mike Nagel
Excerpt: “Would a red panda make a good pet?” I ask Google two or three times a year.
November 23, 2025
Sabyasachi Roy plumbs the depths of antagonists’ hearts, and Kathleen Fullerton finds humanity in the unlikeliest of places.
Unlikable Characters: Understanding the Appeal and Building Empathy
Craft: Sabyasachi Roy
Excerpt: Unlikable characters are a breath of fresh, if slightly toxic, air, in a world full of flawless Instagram influencers and squeaky-clean heroes.
Gratitude Found Inside the Fence
Culture: Kathleen Fullerton
Excerpt: Coffee brews in an old industrial pot, large upon the counter in this long open room optimistically called “the day room.”
November 16, 2025
Saeed Ibrahim reminisces a trip to an Indian cantonment hill town in the early 60s, and Michael Smith’s early-90s Eastern Bloc adventures find him in Leningrad.
“GOING DOOLALLY!” — Memories of an Idyllic Childhood Vacation
Culture/Travel: Saeed Ibrahim
Excerpt: The smell of fodder and hay wafted through the air as the train puffed into the quaint little Deolali Railway Station.
Drawing Back the Curtain: Russia 1991 & Eastern Europe 1992 (Part 2 – Leningrad)
Culture/Travel: Michael Smith
Excerpt: From time to time during this overnight journey we passed through areas of very bright lights shining deliberately on the train. I had been warned about this before we left for Russia.
November 9, 2025
Arpita Bhawal paints an inconclusive battleground, and Rituparna Mukherjee translates Mojaffor Hossain’s fiction of sweeping finality.
Priceless
Humour: Arpita Bhawal
Excerpt: I’m not giving you any money to visit that shrew!
In the Shadow of an Absence
Translation: Mojaffor Hossain, tr. by Rituparna Mukherjee
Excerpt: Hello, this is Himadri. My house is at 3/3 Blind Lane, I have a corpse in my house.
November 2, 2025
Sumitra Singam lashes out at the manufacturers of a clingy software, and Enit’ayanfe Ayosojumi Akinsanya arbitrates a heated dispute between two steaming parties.
To the Manufacturer of the Tinder-Arsehole Detector (TAD)™
Humour: Sumitra Singam
Excerpt: Dear Sir (there’s no way you’re a Madam), I write to express my extreme discontentment with your product.
The Emergency Case at No. 24, Dolamu Street
Humour: Enit’ayanfe Ayosojumi Akinsanya
Excerpt: The salt cup fell from my hand. Tope Alabi flew away from my mouth. I almost burnt my eggs.
October 26, 2025
Tim Frank fights tooth and nail to retrieve a missing denture, and Johnny Roach finds closure in a smoldering city.
The Wrong Tooth
Humour: Tim Frank
Excerpt: I’d spent all my savings for this visit and now I looked like a malicious goblin.
All Things Considered
Humour: Johnny Roach
Excerpt: I decided it was time to stop wallowing and start getting my revenge body, as they say.
October 19, 2025
Alice Moon records an interview with a depressed apex predator, and Sarp Sozdinler recounts how in the beginning there was nothing but Chuck Norris.
Twilight Ruined My Life
Humour: Alice Moon
Excerpt: The therapist hums thoughtfully. “It’s definitely difficult to be a vampire in the 21st century.”
The Gospel According to Chuck Norris
Humour: Sarp Sozdinler
Excerpt: And the lion was made king of the jungle, only because Chuck Norris declined the position.
October 12, 2025
Jacelyn Yap photographs tradition in a Japanese teahouse district, and Michael Smith roams the Eastern Bloc with an old Russian camera, starting with 1991 Moscow.
Off the Main Road
Photo Essay: Jacelyn Yap
Excerpt: The teahouse district in Kanazawa, now a popular spot for traditional sweets and crafts, is a well-preserved historical geiko district.
Drawing Back the Curtain: Russia 1991 & Eastern Europe 1992 (Part 1 – Moscow)
Culture/Travel: Michael Smith
Excerpt: Following the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989, visiting former Eastern Bloc countries became possible, and increasingly attractive.
October 5, 2025
Ayushi Kainthola records prowlers in the Himalayas, and Shobha Ramani chronicles an oilseed that ties the world together in life and death.
Phantoms of the Hills: Legends of Garhwal’s Big Cats
Culture: Ayushi Kainthola
Excerpt: One of the most vivid memories of my childhood is deeply associated with the big cat–human conflict in Uttarakhand.
Few Grains of Sesame
Culture: Shobha Ramani
Excerpt: I had never viewed sesame through the lens of grief until that year.
September 28, 2025
Rakhima Imanaly floats on high over vales and hills in Kazakhstan, and John Haymaker saves his head in heady Portugal.
Secrets of Mountains
Travel: Rakhima Imanaly
Excerpt: Mountains are like people, they show their secrets only once. We are to be aware of it at a given time, otherwise, we lose this chance forever.
Keeping our Heads at the Feast of Saint John
Culture/Travel: John Haymaker
Excerpt: Showing it to my partner, we smiled at the possibilities. I banged the hammer a few more times and found it effective for relieving tension.
September 21, 2025
Guinotte Wise goes rodeoing with pen and paper, and Sydney’s Guard recounts how the most viral modern invention fashioned his quest.
Writing as Bull Riding
Craft/Culture: Guinotte Wise
Excerpt: Rodeo vis-à-vis writing. You’ll encounter BS in both, especially the writing, as the internet’s BS factor has risen considerably.
Embracing the “Best Present Days” of the Computer and Internet Conquest
Culture: Sydney’s Guard
Excerpt: We are soon releasing our debut EP. If it wasn’t for my savior machine and tool, I would, still, be in limbo.
Festive Edition
Pujo is Here but Not for Everyone
Culture: Sanskriti Roy
Excerpt: But Maa’s arrival is only partial, because Pujo is not for everyone. I realise this while passing through the city’s restless traffic on a Rapido.
The God-makers
Photo Essay: Tejaswinee Roychowdhury
Excerpt: Mum tells me that when she was little, she would sit with her knees to her chest all day, watching the God-makers at work.
September 14, 2025
Jacelyn Yap takes in Japan’s waterways, and Marshall Moore lands at the world’s gateway to Japan.
Season of Endless Blue
Photo Essay: Jacelyn Yap
Excerpt: Whenever I’m in Japan, I’m drawn to the rivers and longkangs (a colloquial term in Singapore/Malaysia for street drains).
Narita
Travel: Marshall Moore
Excerpt: I had yen in my money clip, vague expectations, and a sore backside from staying seated most of the way across the Pacific.
September 7, 2025
Cate LeBrun juggles tongues and parenting on park visits, and Mary Buchanan decodes fairy tales in a fever dream.
Fluent
Culture: Cate LeBrun
Excerpt: I lack enough German to be considered functional so I nod like a stage actor, a smile fixed and hanging on by its sensitive teeth.
Rapunzel Has Insomnia
Culture: Mary Buchanan
Excerpt: Her DNA smells of roses and lavender and her days are spent searching mirrors for keys to the future her author has already denied her.
August 31, 2025
Raka Banerjee glides at ease through the City of Joy, and Rafaela Kottou reminisces a meditative meal in Salamanca, Spain.
Window Seat to the City
Culture/Travel: Raka Banerjee
Excerpt: I remember reading a beautiful poetry collection, one of the first borrowed from the British Council Library, on-board the Kolkata tram.
In Salamanca, Spain
Culture/Travel: Rafaela Kottou
Excerpt: Salamanca, Spain is where I had the best steak of my life. It was at a restaurant in the center of the city, which they call the Plaza Mayor.
August 24, 2025
Kira Córdova cautions against fetishizing costumed professionals, and Jim Hohenbary discovers physics while dipping in a pond.
Do Not Pet While Working
Culture/Humour: Kira Córdova
Excerpt: If you have an 18th-century British military kink, I beg you, don’t tell me.
The Time I Invented Astronomy at the Local Pool
Culture: Jim Hohenbary
Excerpt: And yet, ancient alien astronaut theories seem to be more popular than ever in seeking to explain ancient monuments and ancient knowledge. So strange.
August 17, 2025
Z. M. Asafzah traces affection and desire from myths to modern retellings, and Jer Hayes critiques the enduring myth of Americana.
The Heroines in Hadestown: Objects of Desire versus Agents of Affection
Culture: Z. M. Asafzah
Excerpt: The story is a retelling of the “love story” of Orpheus and Eurydice, but entwines the Greek gods Hades and Persephone and their “love” story into its lore.
Americana in a Bun
Culture: Jer Hayes
Excerpt: There was a time when the golden arches stood for more than a cheap meal, especially outside the United States.
August 10, 2025
Samiksha Ransom contemplates a bloody solution to matters physical and philosophical, and D.C. Nobes feuds with a rodent the night before his wedding.
‘Mouse in the House’ and ‘If I Could Cut Off My Ear Like Vincent’
Humour: Samiksha Ransom
Excerpt: In the quietness of my head / would a song break out?
The Tale of the Psychotic Mouse
Humour: D.C. Nobes
Excerpt: This was the point at which we realised that this was not a normal mouse… So we christened it The Psychotic Mouse (TPsM).
August 3, 2025
Susnata Karmakar lives myriad lives in an old university town, and Rohee Dholakia translates Panna Naik’s fiction of forbidden fruits in a foreign land.
Documenting my Cambridge
Photo Essay: Susnata Karmakar
Excerpt: To me, it’s a city full of people and their bicycles. A city full of dreamers hoping to live a little better, hoping to expand their dreams.
The Next Wednesday: English Translation of the Gujarati short story, નિત્યક્રમ (Nityakram), written by Panna Naik
Translation: Rohee Dholakia
Excerpt: One afternoon, on your way from work to the post office, you notice Prerna from 20 feet away near the glass pane of the Manhattan bagel cafe.
July 27, 2025
Chayanika Saikia walks through a centuries-old sacred sanctum, and Elizabeth Barton commits the profane in the name of revolution.
Prayer House of the Gaonkars
Photo Essay: Chayanika Saikia
Excerpt: The portrayed house of the Gaonkar family, once a living space, is now a sanctum for the family rituals and cultural festivities, sublimed by spirituality.
South Tongariro Domain
Humour: Elizabeth Barton
Excerpt: I had / just anointed the native grasses, / avoided a toilet which demanded / Vaccine-passes
July 20, 2025
Zoé Mahfouz vents her cyber ordeal, and Barnali Ray Shukla recounts an Austenesque experience.
The WhatsApp Groups Need to Stop
Humour: Zoé Mahfouz
Excerpt: “How come you’re not on the WhatsApp group? Let me add you!” That’s when the nightmare began.
Finding Ginger
Humour: Barnali Ray Shukla
Excerpt: Zorro the cat, aka Daggu Bhaiya, boasts of a Persian lineage, crossed with a less-celebrated parent. But this bundle of wonder is now a Mumbaikar.
July 13, 2025
Dustin Vann honours a witch that charmed a generation, and Mark McConville turns to America’s favourite punks to process his loss.
“Thank you, Prue”
Culture/TV: Dustin Vann
Excerpt: Much of that fascination is thanks to her portrayer, the late Shannen Doherty, who imbued Prue with her own unflinching confidence, courage, and vulnerability.
American Idiot and the Loss of My Parents
Culture/Music: Mark McConville
Excerpt: As I sat in a room of few things, I started to confide in a record, an album that was politically infused, a non-nonsense assessment of a country on its knees.
July 6, 2025
Amita Basu braves the workplace, and James Sennott and Alba Blanco set the stage on fire.
How to Survive a Work Meeting
Humour: Amita Basu
Excerpt: If the meeting will be headed by your CEO, dean, or other bigshot, prepare yourself — slip into the bathroom, turn to the mirror, and practise your best fake, fawning smile.
Smokey the Bear and his Searing Performance
Humour: James Sennott and Alba Blanco
Excerpt: “Boss said I could have a smoke break, as long as none of those damn kids see me,” he muttered to himself.
June 29, 2025
Saraswati Nagpal struggles to appease Saraswati with Annapurna at her back, and Maureen Tai resolves to fix time, one Duracell at a time.
Woman of the House
Humour: Saraswati Nagpal
Excerpt: The fridge is bare. She waves a dying tomato in the air to prove her point. My brain is trying to find another word for “splendour.”
The Clocks
Culture/Humour: Maureen Tai
Excerpt: As I wandered from room to room, I noticed that each clock, housed in a separate room, showed a time of just before or just after 5 o’clock.
June 22, 2025
Jacelyn Yap continues walking through Japanese heritage, and Bidisha Satpathy tries new aberrations in a new year.
Fleeting Moments of Stillness
Photo Essay: Jacelyn Yap
Excerpt: Such care and attention to detail is common across cultural sites [in Japan], and is best savoured in the moments of stillness.
January
Culture/Humour: Bidisha Satpathy
Excerpt: In the mirror, I look like I did in December, with an addition of about seven greying hair.
June 15, 2025
Roger Chapman wages war on facial hair, and Louis Hunt translates terse verses of an ancient yogi.
The Beard Ban
Humour: Roger Chapman
Excerpt: They simply won’t be allowed to have a beard and a moustache at the same time.
Poems from Bhartrihari’s Shatakatraya (The Three Hundreds)
Translation: Louis Hunt
Excerpt: Where else can one find such useless stuff / if not in youth’s ramshackle house?
June 8, 2025
Brian Christopher Giddens writes an obituary for a green man of passion, and Gary Finnegan sings his devotion to the brown life fuel.
Otto’s Obituary
Humour: Brian Christopher Giddens
Excerpt: Otto went through two brooms a season, and multiple pairs of jeans due to holes in the knees.
On Coffee and Usefulness
Culture: Gary Finnegan
Excerpt: While every other aspiring sophisticate was splashing water into brown dust, we knew a better way.
June 1, 2025
Candice M. Kelsey muses on kith and kin, and Mark Daniel Taylor comes unstuck in time.
‘To My Step Father-in-Law,’ ‘Education,’ ‘Cool,’ ‘Back in Los Angeles’ and ‘Fitness Journal’
Humour: Candice M. Kelsey
Excerpt: did you really leave us only a shoebox of Iraqi Dinars obsolete and valued at .00076 of the U.S. Dollar
Mister Bubbles
Humour: Mark Daniel Taylor
Excerpt: Well, Mister Bubbles, have you ever heard of the theory that time is relative?
May 25, 2025
Anthony Kane Evans sells a silky smooth story, and Sherry Morris embarks on a quest for our times.
Frank’s Hair Fetish
Humour: Anthony Kane Evans
Excerpt: No, I mean he walked into an advertising hoarding, some hair product or other, and I think he has a minor concussion.
Castles, Kings and Golf Swings
Humour: Sherry Morris
Excerpt: The king shook his head. Now was not the time to dwell on the past. He needed to figure out his present predicament and replacement.
May 18, 2025
Delphine Gauthier-Georgakopoulos has a once in after a lifetime encounter, and Garrett Berberich attends a timely meeting.
How I Met My Father
Humour: Delphine Gauthier-Georgakopoulos
Excerpt: But the arms enfolding me were strong and hairy. I had thrown my ethereal self into the embrace of a younger man, a stranger who bore my smile.
Timing
Humour: Garrett Berberich
Excerpt: SMILE! You are currently in a Private View Zone and are being Timed. Taking in views in this Zone will require compensation after the 90-second mark.
May 11, 2025
Sourav Chatterjee relates a tale of great expectations of a bleak house in hard times, and R Karthik locates “God’s favourite children” in the grand scheme of things.
The Cabal
Satire: Sourav Chatterjee
Excerpt: The Communist idea that educators must first be educated melted away into the polluted air of the city.
The Utter Irrelevance of Human Lives
Culture: R Karthik
Excerpt: Considering the vanity-inducing narratives that we have come to believe, it is disturbing to discover the truth of our irrelevance in the grander scheme of things.
May 4, 2025
Zary Fekete ponders whether to pop the question, and Muheez Olawale goes the extra mile to woo.
Flower
Humour: Zary Fekete
Excerpt: Once, on a Saturday, Istvan took the tram to its end stop and he wandered up and down the streets of small houses, not to find her, not exactly, but to imagine.
Richie Jay
Humour: Muheez Olawale
Excerpt: After Jimi garbs himself in the chosen clothes and ornaments, he splashes some cologne all over him. Looking expensive equals zero if he doesn’t smell expensive.
April 27, 2025
Anna Nguyen shares vignettes on family, identity, language and otherness, and Jacelyn Yap finds nature and devotion in temples in Japan.
Cruel Sentimentalism
Culture: Anna Nguyen
Excerpt: I remember reading on the forums how Maggie betrayed her fans in China. Because she married a white man.
Worship in Nature
Photo Essay: Jacelyn Yap
Excerpt: A friend who currently lives in Ishikawa, Japan, brought me to one of her favourite local spots — Natadera, a temple that embraces and worships nature.
April 20, 2025
Titilayo Matiku chronicles mechanical and organic slitherers of Lagos, and Nenad Pavlovic plays accidental agent of chaos across realms.
‘Danfo’ and ‘Ode to a Scaly Skin’
Humour: Titilayo Matiku
Excerpt: Doesn’t Mango like rice? I have not seen any roach lately so he needs to eat whatever is available.
The curious case of Tim Cranshaw and all the people that were hurt, maimed, or mildly inconvenienced by it
Humour: Nenad Pavlovic
Excerpt: It took three fire brigades exactly seven days to put out the fire at Acacia No. 9.
April 13, 2025
Ashley Kirkland paints heart and home with gentle comedy, and Nathaniel Calhoun tinges life with flecks of philosophy and humour.
‘In the Checkout Lane,’ ‘Shitstorm’ and ‘Hours Before the Inspector Comes to Approve Us for a Loan’
Humour: Ashley Kirkland
Excerpt: That’s what you get / for making out / in the grass.
‘failure to turn,’ ‘roots,’ ‘cut flowers,’ ‘different windows’ and ‘couldn’t be bothered’
Humour: Nathaniel Calhoun
Excerpt: someone I loved / was allergic to mint / and I forgot that, once. / she is okay / but we are no longer close.
April 6, 2025
Alice Eze comes to terms with wild, vivid life in Lagos, and Maria Oluwabukola Oni chronicles the people who enliven the Nigerian capital.
Traffic, Hisses, and Suya: My Lagos Story
Culture/Humour: Alice Eze
Excerpt: Imagine being stuck in a car so long you begin to suspect you’re in a reality TV show called Survivor: Lagos Edition.
I Did Not Come For Peace; Problems, Always!
Humour: Maria Oluwabukola Oni
Excerpt: That’s why you are forever single. If you don’t leave this place now, I will beat you like a conga drum.
March 30, 2025
Nisarg Patel translates Manglesh Dabral’s incisively emotive verse, and Amrita Mukherjee recounts a comedy of errors in a floating city.
Simple Sorrows: Poems by Manglesh Dabral
Translation: Nisarg Patel
Excerpt: The four poems translated here are perfect representations of Dabral’s poetics―in their language, their form, and the themes with which they engage.
Lost in Venice: Beyond the Gondola Rides
Culture/Travel: Amrita Mukherjee
Excerpt: It was pointless to ask my husband anything now because he was definitely not within earshot. Also, he has this personal principle of not asking for directions from human beings but rely on a piece of code.
March 23, 2025
Lyndon Carrier follows a river along her country, and Ankush Saikia transcends geographies and generations.
Following the Mississippi
Culture: Lyndon Carrier
Excerpt: I think of all the people that rely on the river to live, I think of all the people that have followed its path.
The Headhunter’s Son
Culture: Ankush Saikia
Excerpt: For the rest of his life, the burning bird and the death of his father remained inseparably linked in Yingpai’s mind.
March 16, 2025
Jacelyn Yap spends an eventful weekend at a Japanese festival, and Aditi Yadav learns life on a visit to an old master.
51st Sakai Festival — Taikodai Parade and more
Photo Essay: Jacelyn Yap
Excerpt: Just neighbouring the bustling Osaka City is the lesser known Sakai City. Every October they hold their largest festival, the Sakai Festival (Sakaimatsuri).
Of Beauty in the Quotidian
Culture: Aditi Yadav
Excerpt: You live always in motion—onward, forward. But never quite perfect—just as the circle doesn’t really get a final closure, reminding us of our limitations and transient existence.
March 9, 2025
Ecem Yucel discovers edible women in Turkish cuisine, and Tim Frank teaches how to grow wings when you don’t fit in.
Sexual Imagery in Four Ottoman Desserts (or The Sweet, Sweet Objectification of Women)
Humour/Culture: Ecem Yucel
Excerpt: Tulumba (Kerhane Tatlısı), pump (or brothel dessert) — / deep fried batter, coated in thick, / saccharine syrup, resembling churros.
Mosh Pit
Humour/Culture: Tim Frank
Excerpt: Humbled, it occurs to Mylene, nobody likes Tchaikovsky or even classical music—not anymore.
March 2, 2025
Sarah Das Gupta reminisces medical adventures in a bygone Kolkata, and Natalie Nee helps an elderly aviator soar high in the skies.
You have to laugh or you’d cry
Culture: Sarah Das Gupta
Excerpt: There was a loud chorus of ‘oohs’ and ‘ahs’ as I went through A and E with a blood soaked towel on my head, looking like the Queen of Sheba in a horror movie.
Land of the Free
Culture: Natalie Nee
Excerpt: I’ve been waiting to speak with his family, but I can’t remember the last time they were here, despite living less than five miles away.
February 23, 2025
Shamik Banerjee turns to song the quirks of friends and neighbours, and Eli S. Evans has the ultimate cure for an incorrigible itch.
‘The Bathroom Singer,’ ‘A Masterclass on How to Make Your Friend Pay at a Restaurant,’ ‘The Astrologer’ and ‘Waking Up’
Humour: Shamik Banerjee
Excerpt: Also, Saturn in the fifth / House indicates a joyless life. Her sign’s / Aquarius: eccentric; full of pride.
Itchy Head Man
Humour: Eli S. Evans
Excerpt: Once upon a time, there was a man who couldn’t stop thinking about something.
February 16, 2025
Elaine Nadal looks for the muse in experiences diverse and overlooked, and Sarang Bhand probes within and without for the sake of a single poem.
You Are Worthy
Craft: Elaine Nadal
Excerpt: A writer must also find adventures in the real world.
I wish to write a poem
Craft: Sarang Bhand
Excerpt: It cleared something for me and mulling restlessly overnight, I had this whim and urge to write and so ended up writing this.
February 9, 2025
Nina Miller presents a high-octane espionage thriller, and Ed N. White sings the sensational tale of a furry songster.
A Spy of a Certain Age
Humour: Nina Miller
Excerpt: In the spy business, only the very sexy or the extremely invisible can get prized intel. Ask me how I know.
Fleeting Fame
Humour: Ed N. White
Excerpt: I would explain to the judges that Bob saved his delicate voice for his musical performance.
February 2, 2025
Sarah Masters treats with a tale of culinary tricks, and Frederick Charles Melancon establishes the efficacy of otherworldly intervention.
Trick or Treat
Humour: Sarah Masters
Excerpt: You’re a witch, Jan. A bloody witch. Are those eyeballs?
A Dead Dad’s Confession
Humour: Frederick Charles Melancon
Excerpt: I can’t pick the beer cans up, but I can change the flow of air just enough to knock over whatever I want.
January 26, 2025
Surabhi Katyal recounts struggles with wellness and campus life, and Damayanti Saha hunts for music in memory’s attic.
MIDAS
Culture: Surabhi Katyal
Excerpt: I would never tell anybody about MIDAS and my score. I was sure the result was enough to send me home. And I did not want that.
Ghosts on the Radio
Culture: Damayanti Saha
Excerpt: I could feel Aishwarya Rai’s smile on one note, an eyebrow raised, and excitedly but mistakenly remembered Dola Re.
January 19, 2025
Stuti Sinha recounts gastronomical adventures in the queen city of the desert, and Amlanjyoti Goswami reviews Prabal Kumar Basu’s poetry of changing landscapes in a vivid country.
A sonnet about a 24K gold plated rack of lamb
Culture/Humour: Stuti Sinha
Excerpt: Dubai’s a destination for the rich / to spend their money, all without a twitch.
Fishing without a Bicycle in a Changing Country — Prabal Kumar Basu’s A Fish without a Bicycle
Book Review: Amlanjyoti Goswami
Excerpt: Prabal Kumar Basu’s book of poetry is a book of whimsical fancy, where surreal realities intersperse with romantic yearning.
January 12, 2025
Benjamin Brindise stages a family feud on Christmas, and Michael Fowler recalls rock ghosts of days gone by.
White Elephant
Humour: Benjamin Brindise
Excerpt: “There’s no shame in this family is there?”
There Are Way Too Many Obits for Rock Musicians
Culture/Humour: Michael Fowler
Excerpt: You might say I was born to rock, or at least reached puberty to rock.
January 5, 2025
Areeb Ahmad translates Anupam Singh’s songs of body, soul and bequest, and Asha Krishna reviews V.V. Ganeshananthan’s tale of a woman on a flaming island.
‘Inheritance,’ ‘Women Unveiled’ and ‘Yearnings’
Translation: Anupam Singh (translated from the Hindi by Areeb Ahmad)
Excerpt: Indeed, only father’s left shoe remained. / Made of plastic, it could not rot / and kept waiting for feet that fit.
Books in the Time of War — V.V. Ganeshananthan’s Brotherless Night
Book Review by Asha Krishna
Excerpt: The book opens with an intriguing prologue with a New York dateline. “I recently sent a letter to a terrorist I used to know.”
December 29, 2024
Matthew Johnson muses on sports, spirit and the hopes of a people, and Gary Beck puts on a show featuring wise clowns in a fractured society.
The Sports Writing Voice That Has Stuck with Me the Most: Maya Angelou’s “Champion of the World”
Culture/Craft by Matthew Johnson
Excerpt: Angelou is not just telling the play-by-play of an ordinary sporting event; she invites her readers to experience it.
Clown Show
Humour by Gary Beck
Excerpt: There’s no circus anymore. It closed over a year ago. Don’t you watch the news on TV?
December 22, 2024
Daniel Seifert records the troubles plaguing a pop culture colossus, and Wesley Zurovec illustrates the adventures of a featherweight crusader.
My Name’s Reacher. Jack Reacher. And I Just Want the Violence to Stop
Humour by Daniel Seifert
Excerpt: I carry a little chart of the human body, and I cross off each area where I’ve broken someone’s bone.
Super Squirrel and the Gas Station Goons
Humour by Wesley Zurovec
Excerpt: “I’m Super Squirrel. And I demand you let my poodle go.”
December 15, 2024
Ravibala Shenoy recounts a wife’s maiden voyage to Delhi, and Mitra Samal narrates the further adventures of Anu, Naaz and Rosalin in Bhubaneswar.
Paimaam Brings His Wife to Delhi
Humour by Ravibala Shenoy
Excerpt: Except for this one weakness, Paimaam was a simple man.
A Writing Escapade
Humour by Mitra Samal
Excerpt: When Naaz says something seriously it gains weightage, because she rarely does.
December 8, 2024
Michael Smith shows life in a handful of dust, and J.D. Isip ponders what we live, root and write for.
The Mayfly
Culture Essay by Michael Smith
Excerpt: As a schoolboy I was shocked, outraged even, that a creature could have its entire existence limited to just one day.
Writing Against Oblivion
Culture Essay by J.D. Isip
Excerpt: If we are honest, we all want to be ghosts.
December 1, 2024
Marie Cloutier channels grief to fuel her quill, and Mary Buchanan dissects the world’s favourite house mouse.
Writing through Disenfranchised Grief
Craft Essay by Marie Cloutier
Excerpt: I purchased a notebook and a pen and thought how I might fill the book.
The Sorcerer’s Apprentice
Culture Essay by Mary Buchanan
Excerpt: The only question left for you to consider now is what happens when Mickey shows his shadows—his deeper, fallible, more steeped-in-sin-human qualities—over what audiences have been conditioned to expect.
November 24, 2024
Mathieu Cailler versifies the surreal and the absurd, and Billie-Leigh Burns descends into the pantry downstairs.
‘The Astronaut Missed the Moon,’ ‘After the Ghost of Relationships Past Told the Truth’ and ‘Vanishing Point’
Humour by Mathieu Cailler
Excerpt: In his spacesuit, he fetched the morning paper and grabbed a Grand Slam at Denny’s.
Hell’s Kitchen
Humour by Billie-Leigh Burns
Excerpt: Steve Irwin takes his place in the cafeteria line. I ask him what he’s doing down here.
November 17, 2024
Parul Desai Shah encounters the invidious immigrant experience, and Jahnavi Gogoi discovers discrimination close to home.
Smells Like Home
Culture Essay by Parul Desai Shah
Excerpt: “A buyer said the house smelled. Like spices,” Nina stated with dramatic condemnation. This was a bullet wound to my family’s soul.
Satyanarayan Katha
Culture Essay by Jahnavi Gogoi
Excerpt: At one point in my childhood, I declare that I am an atheist. I do not believe in god. Everyone is horrified.
November 10, 2024
Shikha Valsalan travels, parties, yawns and cares in verse, and Miss BayLeaf paves the road to armageddon.
‘Jobless Evil Eye,’ ‘Only Controlled Disasters’ and ‘Darkness, My Old Friend’
Humour by Shikha Valsalan
Excerpt: I am the ultimate / jumbo jinx retardant…
Count Down the Way to Hell
Humour by Miss BayLeaf
Excerpt: Did Israfil blow the trumpet of doom or is it the constant ringing in my ears?
November 3, 2024
Daniel Fitzpatrick follows life along a loafing leaf’s locus, and Mark McConville traces a whirlwind of emotions through Holding Absence’s rock masterpiece.
Leaves
Humour by Daniel Fitzpatrick
Excerpt: It is tempting, when an oak leaf / falls into your empty cup…
Hunting for Joy through Music — Holding Absence’s The Noble Art Of Self-Destruction
Music Review by Mark McConville
Excerpt: To create art, you must be ambitious, and Holding Absence shows they’re masters of melancholia while breaking ground.
October 20, 2024
Katha Haldar and Sarthak Das traverse the heart of Bengal, and Anita Nahal breathes in Daipayan Nair’s earthy haiku.
Salt, Shadows and the Tempest — A Drifting Odyssey
Travelogue by Katha Haldar and Sarthak Das
Excerpt: As we gazed out of the bus window, the road unfolded before our eyes. Sometimes it veered, entering the heart of a distant village.
Heart-touching and resplendent haiku — Daipayan Nair’s the ten hands of a fuchka seller
Book Review by Anita Nahal
Excerpt: As Santōka Taneda, Japanese author and haiku poet, expressed quite rightly, “Haiku is not a shriek, a howl, a sigh, or a yawn; rather, it is the deep breath of life.”
October 13, 2024
Rachel Kitch recounts battles with personal demons and her unforgettable wedding, and Neera Kashyap reviews Lakshmi Kannan’s poetic offering to water goddesses.
auguri, auguri!
Culture Essay by Rachel Kitch
Excerpt: Only one thing was slightly off, and that was the bride. My dress—a custom Anne Barge—was slightly too big.
Riverine Verses — Lakshmi Kannan’s Nadistuti
Book Review by Neera Kashyap
Excerpt: Divided into five segments, Nadistuti is an interconnected riverine flow of poems that reflect each other in a brilliant kaleidoscope of mirrors.
The archive currently links to the old website. They will be uploaded to this website in due course.