The Chakkar

07/01/2026

Another Day: Two Poems by Sukrita Paul Kumar
‘the golden sheen on the pines
beckons the waves of the grey ocean
and the silver arrows dart forth in unison’

https://www.thechakkar.com/home/sukritapaulkumarpoems

05/01/2026

‘the wall’s long chest is marred by uneven blotches—
microcosmic clusters spanning several realities

pressed into layers of plaster. Somewhere,
inside its crevice, a brother ant must be learning

the slow grammar of fatherhood ahead of his time.’

“Time’s Cruel Tentacles”: 2 poems by Abhilipsa Sahoo

Poems by Abhilipsa Sahoo: ‘Once, I was a little bird slowly blooming out of the warm embrace of the nest to learn the taste of first flight, believing that distance was proof of growth. Now I’m just plainly tired of being the burnt-out lamp on my parents’ windowsill’

05/01/2026

Time’s Cruel Tentacles: Two Poems by Abhilipsa Sahoo
‘Once, I was a little bird slowly blooming out of the warm embrace of the nest to learn the taste of first flight, believing that distance was proof of growth. Now I’m just plainly tired of being the burnt-out lamp on my parents’ windowsill’

https://www.thechakkar.com/home/abhilipsasahoopoems

03/01/2026

Our first newsletter of the year, featuring an interview with Meena Kandasamy, Gurpurab celebrations in New Delhi, the Kashmiri dejhoor as a keeper of memory, and more!

- Saurabh Sharma "I choose to meditate on violence because it is the fundamental mechanism through which oppressive structures maintain themselves in India and globally. We cannot understand caste without understanding the systematic violence that enforces untouchability. We cannot comprehend patria...

03/01/2026

‘It’s 2 AM. Raghav’s voice crackles through the phone—distant, familiar—like he’s still in the next room, here with me in Seattle, instead of 8,000 miles away in Hyderabad. The TV is paused on Harrison Ford mid–whip crack, the blue light turning my studio apartment into something small and underwater. My dinner plate sits on the coffee table, dal solidifying into orange wax.

“Leave me alone,” I say, smiling despite myself. “What do you want?”’

Flash fiction by Nagireddy R. Sreenath, “Before It Gets Cold”

Flash Fiction by Nagireddy R. Sreenath : ‘We don’t talk about the silence between us: the missed birthdays, the calls that went to voicemail, the distance that grew while neither of us looked directly at it.’

01/01/2026

Before It Gets Cold
Flash Fiction by Nagireddy R. Sreenath: ‘We don’t talk about the silence between us: the missed birthdays, the calls that went to voicemail, the distance that grew while neither of us looked directly at it.’

https://www.thechakkar.com/home/beforeitgetscold

30/12/2025

'On the days when he is heartbroken, when he can’t arrange food at the temple, when dark clouds envelop the sky and lightning illuminates them—on those days, he misses his mother the most. He recalls being rocked to sleep by her pleasant smell. He recalls she used to feed him rice, applying it on his lips while he slept.'

"Against the Current" - a short story by Biswajit Chatterjee

Short Story by Biswajit Chatterjee: ‘But this peculiarly-formed lad is an altogether different animal when he is in water. With his unfamiliar yet uncanny ability, he learns to handle the waves, the deadly undercurrents, the movement of the swells, the whirlpools.’

29/12/2025

Against the Current
Short Story by Biswajit Chatterjee: ‘But this peculiarly-formed lad is an altogether different animal when he is in water. With his unfamiliar yet uncanny ability, he learns to handle the waves, the deadly undercurrents, the movement of the swells, the whirlpools.’

https://www.thechakkar.com/home/againstthecurrent

27/12/2025

“I’ve found most comfort in literature and writing that elevates human vulnerability: the not-knowingness, the low-grade anxiety and alienation even when things are great, the ghastliness of adulthood and making big decisions—like it’s all nothing.”

Author Sanjana Ramachandran speaks to Karan Madhok

Sanjana Ramachandran’s debut Famous Last Questions investigates the clash of the personal with the sociopolitical. The author speaks about masking and unmasking herself, finding comfort in contradictions, and the flawed institutions of marriage, relationships, and work. By Karan Madhok

27/12/2025

“Storytelling Saves My Life Every Day” – An Interview with Sanjana Ramachandran
Sanjana Ramachandran’s debut ‘Famous Last Questions’ investigates the clash of the personal with the sociopolitical. The author speaks about masking and unmasking herself, finding comfort in contradictions, and the flawed institutions of marriage, relationships, and work. By Karan Madhok

https://www.thechakkar.com/home/sanjanaramachandraninterview

25/12/2025

‘I kneel to tie his shoe;
the lace loops around a leaf,
a quiet attempt at repair
against the order of things.’

Colonies of Resistance: Three Poems by Arya Gopi

Poems by Arya Gopi: ‘I carry my exile in my pocket— / seventeen reminders that buzz / like electronic prayers / to gods who’ve forgotten / how to synchronize.’

23/12/2025

Colonies of Resistance: Three Poems by Arya Gopi
‘I carry my exile in my pocket—
seventeen reminders that buzz
like electronic prayers
to gods who’ve forgotten
how to synchronize.’

https://www.thechakkar.com/home/aryagopipoems