This issue has followed on a most intense period of literary activity and interaction at the Jaipur Literature Festival and Lekhana, Bangalore’s Literary Weekend. Our cover art is a reference to questions of censorship, freedom of speech, the sensibilities of communities, and the political awareness and activism that the response to Rushdie or no Rushdie has engendered. While the stories, on the other hand, are an indication that even though socio-ethical issues dominated much of the recent inky laser-jet neuron cloud space of the subcontinental literati, the gatherings at Jaipur and Bangalore ultimately paid tribute to a larger vision of literary inspiration.
Indira Chandrasekhar started writing fiction with an increasing focus on the short story when she returned to India after more than 17 years abroad. She has a Ph.D. in Biophysics and prior to committing to fiction writing she studied the dynamics of biological membranes at research institutes in India, the United States and Switzerland. She is the founder editor of Out of Print, an online magazine for short fiction with connections to the subcontinent. Pangea , an anthology of stories she has co-edited will be published by Thames River Press in 2012.