Creative Non-Fiction Archives

Of Songs, Thresholds, and Slippers – published in the Epistemic Literary. Finalist for the Genrepunk Wildcard Award 2025

A new song sung; nay, belted out by a familiar female voice floods the car as Idrive to the library one morning— Main thaare paon ki jutti na Ke jad jee kare per li utaar di I’m not the slipper on your footthat you use and discard at your whim I...

“What about Mummy’s saris?” I ask my father after thirty years – published in FlashFlood, June 2024

Creative Non-Fiction

“Tsk…later, eat these first.” Daddy points to piping hot samosas. ‘Got them specially for you.’ It’s been thirty years. He doesn’t know I’ve turned gluten free. I ask again. “We must’ve given them to the maids or something…it’s been thirty years.”...

Accoutrements of Hiraeth – published in the Epistemic Literary

Creative Non-Fiction

Deep winter. Dehradun. I’m five years old. Papaji, my grandfather, is collecting glowing embers of coal from my grandmother’s chullah (earthen stove) in the courtyard. He’s using a pair of old iron tongs, no bigger than his large farmer’s hands, to...

At Home in My Skin

Creative Non-Fiction

Born of Punjabi stock, I've inherited the following traits: 1. An innate urge to use made-up, superfluous, and rhyming words. For example, kee laoge—cha, sha, ya paani, shaani? (What would you like? Tea/shea or Water/shawter?) 2. An involuntary...