What’s The Chakkar? Episode 5: We’re listening to Abdon Mech; watching AK vs AK and Indian meta-cinema, and reading Annie Zaidi and Yaa Gyasi. Featuring Ady Manral, Urmi Bhattacheryya, and Shaista Vaishnav. Hosted by Karan Madhok.

“These are more than just stories. They are our history.” Veio Pou’s debut novel Waiting for the Dust to Settle (2020) narrates a story drawn from real-life incidents from Operation Bluebird in Manipur, blending the personal and the political. By Saurabh Sharma

After a lengthy lay-off, Indian academic institutions have begun to re-open and welcome students back to campus. In interviews with students from around the country, Sadaf Vidha explores how visible and invisible structures in academic spaces affect their mental health.

Golchakkar Series - The March panel of our virtual literary talk features Benyamin, Pankhuri Sinha, Ramesh Karthik Nayak, and Neelam Saxena Chandra: Mother Tongues in a Global Context.

Jeo Baby’s remarkable film The Great Indian Kitchen (2021) is a critique of patriarchy in Indian households, a delicious recipe of a discomforting, cold dish. - By Deekshith Pai

Photo Gallery: The mangrove forests of Coringa in Andhra Pradesh are home to fishing communities that live close to the bank of the Korangi river, their livelihood dependent on the unique ecosystem of the region. By Srikanth M.V.

The burden and rot of history lead a small Indian town to the precipice of tragedy. Annie Zaidi’s poetic novel Prelude to a Riot is a red flag of violence to come, a siren sound of the irreversible hate that has been brewed in the town—and the larger nation. By Karan Madhok

Short story by Samia Ahmed: ‘This is not an introduction, it’s a mating ritual. I am twenty-four and ripe for marriage.’

Five poems by Gopal Lahiri: ‘somewhere the curling script of history hangs over / the old crossword book of migration’.

Girar is a streaming novel by Kiran Bhat which will take place in 365 different corners of the planet. “A New Year” is an excerpt from the first instalment of Girar, setting up the premise on the first day of the Kannada New Year.

Vikramaditya Motwane’s AK vs AK asks more questions about reel and real than any other film in recent memory. How much of real life inspires cinema? How far can cinema piggyback on what’s happening in the outside world? By Urmi Bhattacheryya

What’s The Chakkar? Episode 4: We’re watching Welcome Home and Indian horror; listening to When Chai Met Toast; reading Aravind Adiga and Balli Kaur Jaswal. Featuring Prateek Santram, Ady Manral, and Shaista Vaishnav. Hosted by Karan Madhok.