News
Outlook
Joy Words Club
Lit fests are defined by their audience. Organisers, speakers, curators are all replaceable but not the readers, not the audience
4 min |
February 01, 2026
Outlook
The Sting of the Bar
India today has more than 4.3 lakh undertrial prisoners. A significant number of them are linked to political cases
8 min |
February 01, 2026
Outlook
The Dispossessed
The systematic creation of criminal and security legislations view Adivasis as an inherently suspect class of criminals and terrorists
8 min |
February 01, 2026
Outlook
The Hypocrisy of Liberals
Favour of the self-proclaimed 'liberals' is lost the minute religion intervenes
5 min |
February 01, 2026
Outlook
Inside the Phansi Yard
Death row intensifies the structured brutalities of the penal system and reminds us why the struggle against the death penalty must also include the fact of prison violence
9 min |
February 01, 2026
Outlook
The Detention Legacy
Since Independence, a number of laws have been enacted that allow preventive detention which have been widely used by all regimes against their political opponents
7 min |
February 01, 2026
Outlook
“This Could Happen to You
The Bhima Koregaon case is not only about those who were imprisoned. It is also about the fate of democracy itself
8 min |
February 01, 2026
Outlook
"I Remember Swinging Between Hope and Despair"
HOPE and despair are basic human emotions and I believe that all human beings, now and then, swing between these two ends of the spectrum in life.
2 min |
February 01, 2026
Outlook
Think Ink
In 2026-the 'year of analog'-how will our relationship with literary festivals evolve?
6 min |
February 01, 2026
Outlook
Who Stole My Youth?
A Delhi district court granted Mohammad Iqbal bail in the riots case within three months. On March 18, 2025, he was discharged in the Babbu murder case, even as the riots trial continues
6 min |
February 01, 2026
Outlook
Half-Freedom
In Jharkhand, thousands of Adivasis have been arrested on Maoist allegations. They have spent years in prison before being declared innocent
8 min |
February 01, 2026
Outlook
Iron in the Soul
\"The Operative Word in Mainstream Media's Discourse For Me is No More 'Anti-National'; it's 'Terrorist”\"
10+ min |
February 01, 2026
Outlook
Goapocalypse
THE mortal remains of an arterial road skims my home on its way to downtown Anjuna, once a quiet beach village 'discovered' by the hippies, explored by backpackers, only to be jackbooted by mass tourism and finally consumed by real estate sharks.
2 min |
January 21, 2026
Outlook
A Country Penned by Writers
TO enter the country of writers, one does not need any visa or passport; one can cross the borders anywhere at any time to land themselves in the country of writers.
8 min |
January 21, 2026
Outlook
Visualising Fictional Landscapes
The moment is suspended in the silence before the first mark is made.
1 min |
January 21, 2026
Outlook
Only the Upper, No Lower Caste in MALGUDI
EVERY English teacher would recognise the pleasures, the guilt and the conflict that is the world of teaching literature in a university.
5 min |
January 21, 2026
Outlook
The Labour of Historical Fiction
I don’t know if I can pinpoint when the idea to write fiction took root in my mind, but five years into working as an oral historian of the 1947 Partition, the landscape of what would become my first novel had grown too insistent to ignore.
6 min |
January 21, 2026
Outlook
Conjuring a Landscape
A novel rarely begins with a plot.
6 min |
January 21, 2026
Outlook
The City that Remembered Us...
IN the After-Nation, the greatest crime was remembering.
1 min |
January 21, 2026
Outlook
Imagined Spaces
I was talking with the Kudiyattam artist Kapila Venu recently about the magic of eyes.
5 min |
January 21, 2026
Outlook
Known and Unknown
IN an era where the gaze upon landscape has commodified into picture postcards with pristine beauty—rolling hills, serene rivers, untouched forests—the true essence of the earth demands a radical shift.
2 min |
January 21, 2026
Outlook
A Dot in Soot
A splinter in the mouth. Like a dream. A forgotten dream.
2 min |
January 21, 2026
Outlook
Because We Live in this World and No Other
WHEN was the last time you read a story that well and truly blew your mind?
5 min |
January 21, 2026
Outlook
Well-Kept Ruins
I remember, is this what you call remembering?
4 min |
January 21, 2026
Outlook
Dreaming a Paradise
HUNGER. It was prevalent everywhere.
4 min |
January 21, 2026
Outlook
The Memory of Fields
EGRETS begin to appear on a day like any other.
4 min |
January 21, 2026
Outlook
The Artifice of Reality
TO my mind, one of the most vital aspects of creativity is the ability to unravel the relationship between a character and their world: their language, politics, lineage and era. The writer's task is not one of mere placement; I do not “place” a character into a setting.
5 min |
January 21, 2026
Outlook
HOME... A CONVERSATION
Donskobar Junisha Khongwir is an educator and visual artist.
7 min |
January 21, 2026
Outlook
The Spaces of Fiction
One of the important lessons that I use in teaching the skill of reading is to ask the readers to focus on the how, rather than the what.
7 min |
January 21, 2026
Outlook
Elsewhere
I often feigned illness on Monday mornings to avoid a needlework class in school. As soon as the school bus had trundled down the street, however, it was safe to be well again. I remember lying back in bed, looking out at a peepul tree, and dreaming my way into ancient Greece.
6 min |