Some People Never Change
20 years later, Alfred Nambiar is back on Coal Island. 20 is nothing, not even half an eye-blink, but the human head has distorted time, it has stopped learning from…
This World
In the most complex moments, the best language available is poetry. It’s hard not to consider events, global or local, from wars to socio-cultural/ethnic injustices, and remain grounded; poetry is…
Ode to Earrings
I’m obsessed with odes. Odes celebrate, elevate, magnify. They treat their subjects as though they are the only things that exist. They insist on focused attention. I like them so…
“No Human Heart Is Made For Crowds”
Malikka told me when she was wiping oil off my back that I was talking about the human heart in my sleep. They assigned me to be her burden after…
Post-Op: Dear Kali
Recuperation has opened me to a world of care, of the slowing down of time, of discerning what success and healing actually mean. I’ve not been able to do too…
I Eat Fears
Once when I was 10, I had a few luxurious hours alone at home. It was bright daylight. The height of afternoon, I think. There was no identifiable danger lurking…
Excerpt from “What Has Happened to Harry Pillai?”
The triplet sisters are famous on Coal Island and yet, most people can count the number of times they have seen the sisters with their own eyes. There is island-talk,…
Novel Excerpts from Yalpanam published in “Singapore Unbound”
The novel centers on one hundred and eighty-five year old recluse, Pushpanayagi, who is on the brink of a transformation, and finds herself traveling back in time to 19th century…
Novel Excerpt from Yalpanam
The gibbons in the jungle awakened. The one-eyed dog beneath the jacaranda tree opened its eye and peered at dew-kissed swifts flying low. By the well behind the house, the…