by Lekha Dey. “Dad!” I tried to call my father but I couldn’t. I couldn’t utter a word. I tried to speak, to scream but as in a dream or nightmare I […]
Haunted, Part 5
Haunted, Part 4
by Lekha Dey. We drove along the banks of the river, the road following its course. On the front seat sat my father, who was driving and my mother who was on […]
Haunted, Part 3
by Lekha Dey. There was very little time. There would be a knock on the door. Soon. The downstairs wooden door had no bell to ring. “It’s classier to be old-fashioned,” husband […]
Haunted, Part 2
by Lekha Dey. I was alone in the house under the moonlight. In the mirror, dying flames of the candles flickered like reflection. White wax melted over the edges of pewter stands, […]
The Mind behind the Mask
The glassy waters of a gurgling brook reflect the changing colours of the day like a mirror. Gray-blue in the cool morning air. Red-orange in the heat of midday. A burst of […]
A Trunk Full of Treasures: Letters from a Legacy
On November 7, contents of a trunk containing rare treasures will spill out into the public domain. Private letters from nearly a century ago exchanged between Netaji Subhas Bose, his elder brother […]
Voting & Identity 2016-2020
When I voted earlier today, I had an eerie feeling. There were maybe five other people in my polling place, which is odd, given the high-voter turnout predicted this year, despite the […]
Voting Women, 100
A hundred years ago today, American women finally got a Constitutionally guaranteed right to vote, when the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified. I confess, when 2020 began, I assumed this centenary was going […]
Brave New City
Like most people, New Yorkers don’t go out very much anymore. We do it more than we did back in April or May, but still… it’s not the same city. You know, […]
Khudiram’s Last Smile
On August 15, India’s Independence Day, I am thinking about how long and laborious a march it had been to get to that day in 1947. A march on a path beaten […]
India’s friendly gestures to neighbors “not reciprocated,” says BJP’s Chandra Kumar Bose.
Chandra Kumar Bose, Bharatiya Janata Party leader from West Bengal, talks to Cuckoo News editor Dola Mitra about the ongoing India-China border conflict and other topics. He reveals why he disagreed with […]
George Orwell, Neglected Son of India
The literary world has failed miserably, once again, to commemorate one of the greatest writers of world literature on his birthday, observes Rajesh Sinha. The visionary author, Eric Arthur Blair, better known […]
Understand, Don’t Stoke, The Rage
The world is in turmoil right now. In poltics, the media, even civil society, there are calls for people to “take sides” and “take action.” But what action? And which “side”? I […]
The Police Do What They Do Because
“Please don’t cry, Ma’am,” said the white policeman to my mother, a brown woman. “These things happen all the time.” The year was 1980. The place was Alexandria, a suburban town in […]
So when the same editor sheds tears for the injustice meted out to the migrant labourers, one’s thoughts drift from ants to crocodiles.
Our middleclass hearts are bleeding. Most of us are outdoing each other in trying to express our shock at what is happening to the poor people of our country. We have all […]
Cuckoo News 