[I wrote this in high school for a competition organized by Peaceworks, Seagull Publishers, Kolkata, that invited stories for peace from Indian and Pakistani students. My story was selected and included in the published book 'Stories for Peace', which it would be impossible to find anywhere now (this is the only place I see any …
Category: My Literary Column
Darkness descends
Darkness descends on me like a great bird's wings misty hedges, wet back alley float by How long will I be here filled with concrete counting my breath Time is ticking ticking ticking will it be future when it ends will anyone have waited for me

All at once
The universe is arriving all at once. No refuge where its infinite detail does not bloom to fill all available surface Not a moment’s escape from its unfolding of enormous sky, glass, moving bodies that have nothing to do with me. No respite today from turmoil boiling up from a center that has never known …
The Answer
On X2 Prime, or X2603-A115 as it was referred to in the old databases of the Federation, it was always night. A slowly spinning skyful of stars shone tirelessly down on the barren landscape. The atmosphere was thin and dry, posing little obstruction to the cold, relentless starlight raining down from the great galactic bands …
I am here.
The spirit of the universe was nowhere to be found and we had charted light years of starways through quiet dust-strewn blankets of forever dark to find ourselves run out of road, staring but into ancient void There is nothing, we relayed as we made to pull the plug for there was nothing to stay …