Author Archives: Shubnum Khan

She said, ‘It’s intoxicating to be around someone so alive.’

Once there was a moment when we didn’t say anything. We kept looking away. And I didn’t know what to say. And yet everything was said. The important things anyway. The important things always find a way to be said. Somehow. And then I went away. I walked to my […]

At this year’s Writing for Liberty Conference in Cape Town, renowned journalist and poet Antjie Krog gave a keynote speech that helped me with so many questions I’ve been grappling with when it comes to writing, identity and how to navigate the space of how to write the other. What […]

You sold me down the river.

I keep replaying the moments above Bhatpura in my head. The promises we made. Kids shouting. Setting sun between trees. Names carved in stone. A fistful of chinar leaves in the air.

On the morning Of, I went outside with the thick utility scissors and above the bin outside the backdoor (where, on winter nights in the dim yellow light I remember another moment), I cut up the last memory I have. The rubber is tiny and stiff and I struggle and […]