The shelf / 7 Asian healing fiction recommendations for rainy days

In the latest documentary podcast series “Three Million”, journalist Kavita Puri seeks to answer this haunting question: “How do three million people just disappear?” by talking to some of the last surviving witnesses, including Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen. 

The top selections in poetry, flash fiction and artwork for Day 27 of the Sehri Tales challenge; prompt: Liberation

The winners were announced on 4 April, 2024, with the ceremony being hosted by Sheikh Sultan bin Tahnoon Al Nahyan, chairman of the SZBA Board of Trustees

The top selections in poetry, flash fiction and artwork for Day 26 of the Sehri Tales challenge; prompt: Duty

The top selections in poetry, flash fiction and artwork for Day 25 of the Sehri Tales challenge; prompt: Soul

They say the hills have eyes Iridescent, all knowing, and deathlike.

The mid-month slump is probably the most demoralising part of the Sehri Tales challenge, even for long-time Talers.

Reya looks out the window of the bus, the glint of sunlight falling across her oval face makes her olive skin shimmer.

Thirty-odd years later, in my two-member home, I try to recreate the Ramzan vibes with overpriced and undersized lamps and lanterns sporting star and crescent motifs

The top selections in poetry, flash fiction and artwork for Day 24 of the Sehri Tales challenge; prompt: Seven

Do you want my hands / Will they be enough to keep you warm

The top selections in poetry, flash fiction and artwork for Day 23 of the Sehri Tales challenge; prompt: Olives

The Covenant of Water by physician and author Abraham Verghese tells the story of three generations of an Orthodox Saint Thomas Christian family in Kerala. Through suffering and loss, triumphs and victories, the importance of familial ties is examined and supported. In the Kerala of the 1940s, blood ties were sacred, but “family” also meant helpers who worked for you. Members of the three-generational family seem to be under a curse which causes its members to drown in water. The mystical power of water in our lives is explored with precision and sensitivity in the novel.

The title of this book suggests that it is based in Bengal but it really meanders deftly across time and space, more often than not in “mazy motion”.

A review of ‘Temple Lamp: Verses on Banaras’ (India Penguin Classics, 2023) by Mirza Ghalib, translated by Maaz Bin Bilal

The top selections in poetry, flash fiction and artwork for Day 22 of the Sehri Tales challenge; prompt: Flag

The top selections in poetry, flash fiction and artwork for Day 21 of the Sehri Tales challenge; prompt: Tire

The top selections in poetry, flash fiction and artwork for Day 20 of the Sehri Tales challenge; prompt: August

The top selections in poetry, flash fiction and artwork for Day 19 of the Sehri Tales challenge; prompt: True

The top selections in poetry, flash fiction and artwork for Day 18 of the Sehri Tales challenge; prompt: Rubble