Folktales like Heer-Ranjha echo the fluidity of religious beliefs. Ranjha who is Muslim converts into a jogi when he hears of Heer’s marriage to another man. In folk chronicles like these, the hybridity of myth, folklore and their practices are replicated. (Nandini Sahu’s “Folk Deities as the Alternative Myths in India”).      (FEATURE)

One doesn’t associate manmade structures like dams and bridges with folktales. Yet in Kerala’s Idukki district the Idukki Arch Dam has gained fame for the folktale associated with it and the two hills that form sides of the dam. (Tina Jose’s The Kuruvan and Kuruvathi Folktale that Culminated in the Idukki Dam)        (FEATURE)

If estrangement is one of the impacts of exile, it can also flout the comfort zones of people, infuse greater courage and strength in people to face the world and its challenges. (Bani Dayal Dhir & Vijaya Dhar’s  “Siddhartha Gigoo’s The Garden of Solitude and Edward Said’s Theory of Exile – Applicational Study”)           (LITERARY SECTION)

Rhetoric of nationalism may have its own benefits to maintain a peaceful civilization but the same rhetoric, if misguided, often leads to war. (Baswati Parasar’s “Imagined Identities and its Discorded Notes: Reading Rita Chowdhury’s Makam as a Rage against the Rhetoric of Nationalism”)   (LITERARY SECTION) 

‘Desire to Home’ by Ria Chowdhary is an autobiographical journey from apparent clutter to a presumed serenity and then backpack to square one, the definitive home. How significant is this voyage into nothingness? In the author’s words – the circle of life – trapped in a loop… (FICTION)

Nisha Santosh explores the most subtle and sublime tones through her narrative ‘Voices in the Head’. A mother’s suffering is well portrayed – she was lost in a world of despair and disease because she couldn’t accept the absence of her son. How difficult is it to give space to the naught in our lives?  (FICTION)

Aswini Mishra’s poems are a commentary on society as it exists in the current times. The struggle for power and how it affects a person; how one searches for oneself in a fast-paced world; making peace and at times accepting how things are doled out.  (POETRY)

Saweini Laloo’s poems take one back to how things might have been. The idea of home and a pervading sense of loss looms over her poems. The crystallization of memories has been beautifully depicted in her works.  (POETRY)

Arshaly Jose reviews The War Diary of Asha- San by Lt. Bharathi Asha Sahay Choudhry. She elaborates how the book is a memoir and poignantly expresses how history makes wars all about ideologies and kingdoms and conveniently forgets the people who fought on either side.  (BOOK REVIEWS)

Matilda Yorke’s review of Portraits in Dignity by Dr. Eva Bell is a tribute to women power. She praises the book for its easy-to-read language, no gory details of the abuse. She notes that each of the main characters in stories are from different walks of life, from different cities, villages and towns.  (BOOK REVIEWS)