I started writing this piece at the behest of someone who doesn’t celebrate Diwali but was eager to know more. So before anyone else, I went and explored a bit more for myself. From childhood memories of Satya Deev Naveed in Srinagar to a truckload of firecrackers in Jammu, from the epic of Rama to Lakshmi Puja on the darkest night, Diwali speaks to hope, renewal and the power of goodness.

14min reading
In Focus

In a world obsessed with constant stimulation, Songs From Nothing explores the vanishing art of boredom—the quiet spaces where imagination once took root. Through childhood memories of games like Antakshari and reflections on modern digital life, Dr. Sanjeev Srivastav reveals how boredom, far from being an emptiness to be filled, is the fertile ground of creativity and connection. He invites readers to rediscover stillness, to reclaim idleness as a source of insight, and to reimagine what it means to truly be alive in the age of the endless scroll.

12min reading
Editor's Desk

The rain made the heat bearable but not the mosquitoes. I tried sprays and roll-ons; finally I lit the tortoise green coil and watched its smoke curl towards the fan. In the morning only a curved grey line of ash remained, a shape that stayed whole until it did not. Three family photographs, taken across decades, registered a similar disappearance: carved latticework and lawns, then an emptied house and finally only steps where a home once stood. The coil’s slow spiral seemed the right image for what time does to memory and to the land left behind.

13min reading

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