Weekly Author Feature 

Meena Kandaswamy.

Meena Kandasamy 

Meena Kandasamy is a prominent Indian writer who writes in English and is known for her fearless and powerful voice. She is a poet, novelist, essayist, and activist whose work strongly addresses issues of caste, gender, patriarchy, and political violence in Indian society. Her writing challenges dominant narratives and gives space to voices that are often silenced.

She first gained recognition through her poetry collections Touch and Ms. Militancy, where she blends personal experience with political resistance. Her poems are sharp, direct, and emotionally intense, reflecting her commitment to social justice and equality. Through poetry, she established herself as a bold and uncompromising literary voice.

Meena Kandasamy later moved into fiction with novels like The Gypsy Goddess and When I Hit You: Or, A Portrait of the Writer as a Young Wife. These works received international attention for their experimental style and honest portrayal of oppression, trauma, and survival. Her novels are known for breaking traditional narrative structures and confronting uncomfortable realities.

Overall, Meena Kandasamy stands out in Indian English literature for combining art with activism. Her writing is not just meant to be read, but to provoke thought, resistance, and dialogue, making her an important contemporary author to feature.

Sources:

Wikipedia, Penguin Random House India, Simon & Schuster India.

 Weekly Author Feature.

RUPI KAUR.

Rupi kaur 

Rupi Kaur is an Indian-origin poet, author, and illustrator, born in 1992 in Punjab, India, and raised in Canada. She is widely known for bringing poetry into the digital age and for giving voice to young women across cultures.

Although she lives abroad, Rupi Kaur’s writing is deeply influenced by Indian experiences, especially themes of womanhood, patriarchy, migration, family, and generational trauma—all of which strongly reflect Indian society and diaspora life. Her poetry often mirrors the silence, strength, and resilience of Indian women.

Her bestselling book Milk and Honey explores pain, healing, body image, and female endurance—topics closely connected to the lived realities of many women in India. The Sun and Her Flowers focuses on roots, immigration, identity, and belonging, symbolized through flowers and ancestry, echoing Indian cultural values. Her later work Home Body reflects inner healing, selfhood, and emotional survival, themes relatable to contemporary Indian youth.

With her minimalistic style and emotional honesty, Rupi Kaur represents a modern Indian voice on a global platform, bridging tradition and modern expression.

Sources:

1.Wikipedia – Rupi Kaur (biography, works, images)

2.Official author pages: Simon & Schuster

 

 "Between the First Bell and the Last Goodbye",poem by Haseena Ahmed Jabri, B.Sc FSCCA III year.

Between the First Bell and the Last Goodbye.

the first year,

college smells like fresh notebooks

and unopened possibilities.

Corridors echo with laughter,

friendships are formed over borrowed pens

and shared curiosity.

Eyes sparkle with ambition,

hands reach for everything at once—

clubs, debates, libraries, late-night talks,

dreams scribbled in the margins of timetables.

Life feels wide, forgiving,

as if time has agreed to wait.

Then comes the second year.

The excitement settles,

replaced by weight.

Syllabi grow thicker,

expectations louder.

Marks begin to matter more than curiosity,

grades whisper judgments,

and comparisons creep into conversations.

Sleepless nights become routine,

smiles turn practiced,

and stress sits quietly in the chest.

Some days feel heavy without reason,

and ambition begins to feel like pressure.

Learning continues—

but now with exhaustion,

and silent battles no one talks about.

Final year arrives without warning.

Suddenly, time runs faster.

There are entrance exams to conquer,

resumes to perfect,

conferences to attend,

workshops that promise direction.

Minor projects demand major effort,

certification courses stretch already tired days.

Coffee replaces sleep,

discipline replaces comfort.

Every step feels urgent,

every decision permanent.

Yet beneath the tension,

something strong is forming—

resilience.

The courage to keep going,

the belief that effort will become opportunity.

And somewhere between deadlines and dreams,

the student becomes a professional,

the learner becomes a seeker,

and college life—

with all its chaos and growth—

quietly shapes a future

worth all the struggle.

"Love at First Sight", a Spoken poem by Arundhati Udhari 

Love at First Sight — Spoken Word for Parents.

They say love at first sight

Is just a story.

But tell me—

What do you call it

When a child enters the world

And becomes everything

In a single second?

I was placed into their hands,

Hands still trembling from pain,

Yet holding me like

Nothing more precious had ever existed.

Their suffering didn’t disappear—

It transformed.

Pain turned into purpose.

Tears turned into strength.

Their eyes met mine—

No questions.

No conditions.

Just love,

Pure and overflowing.

No expectations followed me into life.

No dreams were forced onto my future.

Only a promise, unspoken but eternal:

We will walk beside you.

This—

This is love at first sight.

Not the kind that fades with time,

But the kind that begins it.

So this is for every parent

Who loves before asking,

Who gives without counting,

Who turns their pain

Into a child’s safe world.

Your love is the first miracle

We ever know.

"WHO DECIDES HEAVEN?" By Aastha Mishra BSc. ZCFS , II year

 

Credits: Pinterest 

We arrive in tears we didn’t earn,

tiny lungs, borrowed hope,

soft hands holding us like we already mattered.

A father’s heaven might be his children laughing,

warm bread, tired evenings, a world gentle again.

A brother’s heaven could be promising his sister

she won’t break alone,

and a grandfather’s heaven might simply be

one more day to see the people he raised breathing.

So who decides heaven?

A priest with practiced comfort?

A poet who never held death in their palms?

Or the quiet wishes born in ordinary rooms,

never holy, but painfully real?

Then we go.

No warning, no curtain call,

just an empty chair, a toothbrush untouched,

and a door that stays unlocked,

as if hope refuses to learn the truth.

They say, “Heaven gained an angel.”

But if heaven takes one soul to ease its loneliness,

and leaves another soul gasping on the bedroom floor,

is that paradise, or cruelty dressed in wings?

Maybe heaven is earned peace for the one who goes,

and hell is carved into the chest

of the one left behind.

Because what is heaven to the gone

is abandonment to the grieving.

Maybe the truth is darker than comfort can bear:

heaven isn’t a promise above,

it’s a memory below,

and hell is simply living in the space

where they used to stand.

 Weekly Author Feature.

Vineetha Mokkil

Vineetha Mokkil is an Indian author, short-story writer, translator, and journalist based in New Delhi. She is widely recognised for her contribution to contemporary Indian English fiction, particularly short stories that explore human relationships, inner lives, and social realities with sensitivity and restraint.

She is the author of the acclaimed short story collection A Happy Place and Other Stories (HarperCollins), which was listed among The Telegraph’s Ten Best Works of Fiction in 2014. Her fiction has appeared in several respected national and international literary journals and anthologies, including The Best Asian Short Stories, The Bombay Review, Asian Cha, and Quarterly Literary Review Singapore. She has also edited Lightning Strikes: An Anthology of Flash Fiction by Fifty Indian Writers.

Vineetha Mokkil has received notable literary recognition, including the A. C. Bose Grant (2024) from the Speculative Literature Foundation. Her work has been shortlisted and honoured in international flash fiction competitions, reflecting her strength in concise and impactful storytelling.

Alongside creative writing, she is an accomplished translator, especially from Malayalam to English, with translations featured in prominent collections. She is also a journalist and currently serves as a Senior Associate Editor at Outlook, where she writes on books, gender, culture, and environmental issues. Educated at New York University, Vineetha Mokkil continues to play an influential role in India’s literary and cultural landscape.

Sources : Outlook India (author profile), Speculative Literature Foundation, English Mathrubhumi, Blesok Literary Journal, Fairlight Books.

"With Whom Do I Share Now?". 

A poem ByHaseena Ahmed Jabri.Bsc. FSCCA III year.

I grew up holding your hand—

sitting beside you, hiding behind you after small mischiefs,

sharing everything without thinking twice.

My days, my dreams, my first little achievements,

even the things I didn’t know how to say.

You listened, always.

Stories settled into our evenings,

laughter rested in the folds of your sari,

and home felt complete with your presence.

Now I enter the house and pause,

as if I still have something to tell you.

Every success searches for your smile,

every question waits for your voice.

I remember the pocket money you gave me,

how I locked it away carefully, counting dreams instead of coins,

planning what to buy or what to save for later.

You are no longer here, yet you remain—

in every corner, every habit, every silence.

I have grown, they say,

but I still turn back, wondering,

with whom do I share now?