I had the pleasure of reading Shubhangi Swarup’s Latitudes of Longing, and I must say, I was swept by wonder and emotion. This was one of the finest books by an Indian author. The book was a journey, a fantastical voyage to fantastical places. Each character—Girija Prasad, Mary, Plato, Thapa,…
I could hear the jungle, like a fierce, angry drum, its deep, rumbling bass booming and banging. I hid under the thick mossy trunk of a fallen tree, catching my breath. I dared not move; the sound of my shuffling feet would’ve alerted angry, frothing beasts. Their gnashing white teeth,…
I started 2025 with a simple goal: improve my writing skills. Lofty! I was glad, though. Unlike most times in the past, at least this time I was aware of the challenge. When I was younger, I was a fool. I have no shame in accepting that today. Why? I…
Good girls go to heaven. But wise, weird, and strange girls go everywhere…everywhere is way more interesting than heaven… This is an excerpt from Choicehood, my forthcoming novel. — Deboshree Ghosh
Exercise 4 — Emotion Without Labels Goal: Convey emotion via action, perception, somatic detail, and thought — with zero emotion words. Prompt: Receiving life-altering bad news over a crackly phone line. Target Length: 1,200 words I had been sitting on the couch all morning, staring blankly at the bare walls. Whenever lucidity came…
Exercise 3—Biased Observation Goal: Demonstrate how worldview filters description; what the POV omits matters as much as what they note. Prompt: Walking through a night market in a foreign city with a secret agenda. Target Length: 1,000 words Some things are unchanging. Flipflops clapping, shoes tapping, heels clacking, children’s feet shuffling, four-legged creatures…
Exercise 2 — Voice Deep Dive Goal: Create a narrative voice inseparable from the POV character — diction, rhythm, metaphor, syntax. Prompt: Return to the childhood home after years away: meticulous, control-obsessed POV. Target Length: 1,000 words I turned the corner and expected to see the banyan tree, but only a fat stump…
Exercise 1 — POV Purity & Sensory Anchoring Goal: Absolute discipline — no POV violations, no floating camera. Build trust through strict sensory filtering. Prompt: Packing a suitcase after a breakup — the other person is in the next room, silent. Target Length: 1,000 words I can hear her bare feet shuffling across…
Prateek joined in the revolution of words, “This is not a poem, but a prayer, a prayer that comes deep from my heart for all the men in this world.” “May men know how to bow to the softness within them and around them. May men understand that protection doesn’t…
In the following unpublished email, recovered from the internal archives of ASFA (Association for Searching and Finding A1), Nilima writes to Lata. This letter, sent from the Himalayan town of Munsyari, is not a technical briefing nor a scientific update. It is something far more human: a confession, a lament,…