Turtle Bay

Chandrakala

Out of Print, Issue 2

When our editor Samhita produced the wonderful art you see on the cover of the second issue of Out of Print, we realised that a common thread runs through the stories, that of removal - of the distance between appearance and reality. In some stories, the characters wear a mask, in some they are forced to mask their feelings and in others, the peeling away of layers results in clarity. One might argue that this play of perceptions, of viewing the world through ‘eyes wide shut’ is essential to story; Oscar Wilde, in his essay, The Critic As Artist said that ‘Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask and he will tell you the truth.’ If we were to ascribe a theme to our second release of Out of Print, it would have to be based around masks, illusions and regard.

In Anjum Hasan’s piece we see the world centred and balanced through the sensibilities of Mrs. Ali. K R Usha, winner of the Vodafone Crossword Award, paints a portrait of a woman within a traditional family fold where the narrator’s picture doesn’t quite match the image projected by the family. Rebecca Lloyd, winner of the Bristol Short Story Prize, contributes a story about transitions, cultural schisms and deeply steeped violence in East London. Janice Pariat’s story takes us through the multiple realities of her characters, which are coloured by aggression. A man must reconcile grief, guilt and practicality in a story of a funeral by Karthik Subramanian. In Susmita Srivastava’s piece, a man’s reality is defined by his memory. Vinayak Varma brings us surreal perceptions, while the main character in Fehmida Zakeer’s story must decide whether to manipulate her premonitions.

Some of My Friends Leave Shadows



Intensive Care archived

Intensive Care moved to Nether's archive.

Osmotic Balance

Am I dreaming or is the dancer upside down?

Intensive Care at Nether

Intensive Care is in the first Fortnightly issue of Nether Magazine.
I wrote the story after a week sitting with someone in hospital.

read

Issue 1, Out of Print

The first issue of Out of Print contains eight exceptional stories, exceptional not only in quality but also in distinctness of content and style.

Featured are Kuzhali Manickavel’s intense and powerful This Is Us And This Is Us Outside, Lucinda Nelson Dhavan’s Elevated that opens the lungs and the spirit, 1962 by Trisha Bora, set in the far north-east of India. A woman goes on a pilgrimage in Mridula Koshy’s A Good Mother. In Ajay Krishnan’s Mr Ganesan’s Grief, we read about a man and his loss. Srinath Perur’s Accidents of Fate describes an encounter on a road in Bangalore. Nighat Gandhi’s Hot-water Bag follows a man from one woman’s house to another’s in Karachi. Mahesh Ramchandani’s parody, The Fartanic Curses, is the final story.

Out of Print

It's amazing to think the first issue of
Out of Print is up. A most exciting moment.

Is it coral or are my organs bleeding

RB

More Faces

Faces

Draupadi

coral grew in the depths

The screen lit her face

with an electric glow

and

set her hair alight

The screen lit her face

and her eyes glowed bright

while

coral grew

in the depths

Harvest

It is the harvest festival today.

I have been published in The Little Magazine - a sort of arrival. I hope it bodes well for writing and been seen as a writer.

I worry that quotidian struggles mask deeper thought and blur observation.

My new year wish was for peace and reduced consumption.

And for writing in the new decade, the spare word and rich layering are what I hope for.