Dimensional Diaries: A Quarterly Spring Roundup of South Asian Speculative Fiction

Salam and welcome to the sixth issue of Dimensional Diaries, the second of this year. Spring is supposed to have arrived although it hasn’t really touched the city where I dwell, which seems to be moving fast into a blistering summer instead. Unsurprising, I suppose, especially given the times we live in. 

But hope must prevail, yes? And what better way to rejuvenate it then via speculative worlds brimming with both, astonishingly fantastic yet terribly, humanly real?    

I bring a long list of stories to keep you company today, including stories from Lightspeed, Clarkesworld, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Translunar Travelers Lounge, Apex Magazine, Effy, and Otherside, all published in the first quarter of this year, January to March, 2026. I hope you will enjoy them.

Let us begin.  

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Choose Your Own Damnation by Kehkashan Khalid – Lightspeed, Jan 2026, Issue # 188

A clever, relatable and mostly hilarious Choose-Your-Own-Adventure style short about a tenth-grade student who decides to go to some extreme lengths to hide a bad grade from their parents. If one has to choose between showing a not-so-great report card to desi parents and summoning the gates of hell, the most likely selection would be… Yes. 

Khalid evokes young teenage dread and potential desi drama extremely well. All emotions are amped up into high meters of adolescent frustration and rage. There’s homemade food you loathe, Aunties you like less every day, lamentations about invasions of privacy and the terrible, gnawing absence of the lovely grandmother beloved by all creatures of actual hell. Should you, the reader, chose the shorter route, you’re pulled straight down to the space where the drudges from the underworld are being drummed up for a deal. Should you wish for a longer, slower read, a comedy of errors ensues, leading you back to where the demons be. 

The end, though, is heart wrenching. In true South Asian folklore fashion, there’s a hard learned lesson where all you want to do is give the protagonist a hug. Crafty and fun with a touch of sorrow.     

“Disgusting and shameful were salvageable character traits, but not when combined with dumb and lazy. For a panicked moment your mind thinks of the messages that will circulate the endless family WhatsApp groups, the GIFs that will be sent in moral superiority and commiseration, the looks you will receive at family dinners.”

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Strike First and Then Give Tongue by Lalini Shanela Ranaraja – Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Jan 2026, Issue # 449

“I couldn’t help noticing the weight of rain on his clothes, the droplets caught on his sideburns, the change in his eyes; in the firelight, they were like the Mahaveli at sunset, choppy and full of strange language.”

This is the story of Saradiel, a young man largely raised in the jungle. The trees and caves are more home to him than any village could ever be, the elephants both, his friends and ardent protectors. Grown as an outcast in the shadows, he is not unlike the shadows himself, only wanted and frequented by people in the dark and never the daylight. Until he meets an Englishman from one of the colonial regiments. A man he couldn’t help but save, and should not want. 

But can desire ever be held at bay within such carefully drawn confines? Can love, the want to be loved, be stopped? And what does it mean to fall in love with the other, when you yourself have been othered by the ones who ought to have been your own?

Set in a lush jungle, this is a tale of love, loss, obligation and accountability. There are social and religious restrictions, the camouflage and control of colonial powers and mindsets. There’s the law of the jungle that feels more merciful than the laws put up, and easily betrayed, by powerful men. The title, a famous line from Kipling’s The Jungle Book, is the perfect analogy to describe it all.               

Ranaraja gorgeously employs a number of POVs to make us understand the characters’ diverse inner worlds. The protagonist narrates his life in first person, and we get to know another main character via letters. The reader, meanwhile, experiences most of this world as an antagonist, in second person. The overall effect of this mastery is akin to being submerged in the jungle — a birds’ eye view and a close up, being atop and beneath a tree at the same time.     

A rich world as glorious as it is devastating. 

“Long after he left, I lay flat in the buffalo grass, feeling the space he had occupied in my body, turning two words over in my mouth. Anagathaya. Future. Aadare. Love. Words that made the jungle both recoil and crowd closer, soft and vulnerable and insatiable, like motherless boys or elephant children.”

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The Salt and the Cure by Rukman Ragas – Lightspeed, Feb 2026, Issue # 189

“The days that followed the godkilling were rife with confusion.”

What happens to the followers of faith when its god dies? More, what happens when the promised eternal peace that ought to have followed this demise—a prophesied murder?—is not delivered? These are some of the questions Ragas’s sharply crafted short makes one ponder upon.

Set it a mythological world that seems to be on the brink of an epic disaster—think civil war meets the apocalypse—this is the tale of a leader caught between a rock and hard place: manifesting a prophecy or confessing to the people it was all a lie. But how does one go about abolishing systems one has actively benefited from? Moreover, to admit that faith was a human creation also risks all definitions of divinity. What does that do to a people, a city that is defined by its devotion?

How does one kill a concept? Especially when it’s been marketed and made-to evolve into a prophesy that details the fate of a people.  

Intense, clever, tightly-knit.

“The veil of faith we had woven for decades with myth and misunderstanding was not his crime to bear but mine… the faith had already frayed, the people shaken and waiting for their salvation. One that would not come. I didn’t blame the godkiller for the death of my god, but blame him I did for killing my friend.”

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Heritage, or This Body of Folklore by Ayida Shonibar – Apex Magazine, Feb 2026, Issue # 152

“This is how you know who you are, glancing down at the sweater-texture of stories criss-crossing over each other to form the outline of your body…

It is your parents who begin explaining to you what your stitches mean.”

We are made up of stories. It’s well-versed concept, even a frequently repeated saying, if you will. But what if we were to take, read that sentence literally? That is to say, biologically. Physically and psychologically? This premise forms Shonibar’s piercing body horror tale that explores social supremacy and colonization. 

The visual imagery is visceral, the concept and prose evocative. Written in second person, the poignant, metaphoric descriptions—a tapestry where the physical and psychological, myth and truth merges to form the making of you—makes the weight of the hidden violence wrought feel heavier. It makes one question the lies we tell ourselves under the guise of family history, legacy and ambition. 

“…you realise your many threads do not exist in parallel. No, they run into each other—intersecting, merging, bifurcating—to map out the dense network of what you are. By excising an aspect of yourself, you have introduced discontinuity into the logic your family built you with.”

Who deserves what and whose dreams matter more? How are the histories and hierarchies of recognition, knowledge and access to that knowledge organized? Who gets to writes these future books that will tell the story of your land?

Haunting, sublime, deeply moving.         

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The Garden of Living Flowers by Tunvey Mou – Translunar Travelers Lounge, Feb 2026, Issue # 14

“Unlike my mother, I knew why Aunt Ishavari wanted me, when she could have had her pick of magical, talented apprentices across the empire. It was for the same reason I took in girl-blossoms: to care for a thing that had no other place in the world.”

Imagine a world where the primordial beings disappeared after a great, terrible war and, where today, all green-mages are controlled—as well as handsomely rewarded—by the empire. What does it mean to be born with magic here? What does it mean to none? Which fate is more powerful? Which one more free? These are some of the concepts explored in this truly enchanting short.

This is a South Asian style Ghibli-esque world, in so far that Mou’s prose and attention to detail all but allows one to see the animation playing before your eyes. Combine that with a title straight of Caroll’s Through the Looking Glass, and it is no wonder I wish this actually comes to pass. (Fingers crossed!) Our protagonist is a kind young girl born without powers in a family with incredible magical legacy and who has a panache for finding and transplanting girl-blossoms. The newest addition to her little flower family is a fussy little jasmine who has very exacting standards and is prone to quarrels. She also claims to be not of this world. 

“Nobody quite knew how girl-blossoms came into existence, a mystery that had puzzled the empire’s best green-mages and scholars alike for decades…

Aunt Ishavari liked to believe that girl-blossoms were naught but girls who died too young; lost in the womb or taken by the god of ill-fortune, whose souls then were poured anew into petaled bodies; another chance at a happier, less hazardous life.”

Merged within this mesmerizing fantastical world are familial conflicts, ethical divides, betraying lovers, healing potions made from “soaked remnants of love letters” and a lot of delightfully weird plant magic. Myth is history and the metaphorical real. A charming, delightful fable full of hope and sunshine. 

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Think of Me Before I Disappear by Raahem Alvi – Clarkesworld, Feb 2026, Issue # 233

“Maria was dead in their bed last night and the night before that. Yet her flesh was so warm and searing hot. Maria was dead in the shower last night and also dead when they were cuddling, watching movies.

Maria was dead all along, and Aniqa didn’t know it.”

How would you feel if, after four years of a perfect relationship, you were to learn that your partner was not human but an android? The premise forms the central core of Alvi’s deeply emotional and somewhat devastating novelette. Told in dual POVs, we meander through Maria, the accidentally-gaining-consciousness android, and Aniqa’s tragic love story from deep within their psyches, and learn that breakups are no less distressing even when one of the party’s is not entirely human. The manifestation of this distress, however, varies… but not much. 

Both Aniqa and Maria are confused, hurt, disoriented and heartbroken. It’s just that the language they use to emote this is vastly different by virtue of their literal physical makeup. And therein lies the crux of the issue. Aniqa has a network of feelings, and Maria can no longer feel her network. The result: both are misaligned and struggling to save the one thing solid—each other. 

“Maria’s universe was composed of datasets and calculations. Reality existed in the dichotomies between moving components and static parts. But all of her neurons fired at once as Aniqa entered into the frame.”

But can love prevail in a place where trust has been shattered and the most basic tenures of a human relationship are only half-met? What are feelings for an object that has no soul? Can consciousness be gained without one? Where does intention end and programming begin? How does one define truth and authenticity for a being manufactured to agree and please all parts of you? 

A convoluted web of emotions. Keen, timely, evocative.    

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Break in the Routine by Dr. Suvajeet Duttagupta – Effy: A Literary Magazine, March 2026

Oh, to be inside a bird’s head. A short flash that is mostly melancholic with a dash of eerie. A pet waits in anticipation for their owner who—the reader guesses—may never arrive and manages to tug at your heartstrings. Duttagupta builds the aural atmosphere well, even lending the ambiance a touch of dread that slowly builds towards the end. Sad and uncanny. 

“The rhythm of the house is usually absolute. First, the distant hum of the heater kicks on. Then, the creak of the floorboards down the hall. Finally, the heavy curtain that blocks out the world is pulled back, flooding my small room with morning light.

But today, the heater hummed, and the silence followed.”

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The Homeowner’s Bride by Ayida Shonibar – Otherside, March 2026, Issue # 1

“She talks to me like there’s humanity somewhere inside these walls. As if my monstrosity isn’t the entire story. I can’t tell her what she wants to know without curdling the way she looks at me, without revealing the terrible truth about myself that has evoked the homeowner’s scorn for decades.”

A bloody tale of murder and revenge where the protagonist is… a haunted house. The horror is well knitted, the love story heart wrenching. The details of the house are descriptive enough for one to visualize its parameters without getting lost in it. Because that is reserved for the emotion, in particular pain. Pain that seethes with the weight of its muffled roars. With treachery, shame and the injustice of betrayal unrealized. It results in a murderous concoction of rage, and a terrible thirst for retribution. 

Shonibar paints the premise with eerie patience, the calculated anticipation of the plot gloriously juxtaposed by prose rampant with raw feelings. Feelings that burn and churn and boil and bubble, sweeping the reader along. Uncanny and honest. (Please check content warnings before reading.)    

“I itch under her ministrations, scoured by the first touch of a human I’ve endured in a long time…

When she boils water for her evening bath, my walls tingle in anticipation. Here comes a moment that will strip her bare, render her completely defenceless.

That’s when I’ll strike. And show her what I truly am.”

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That marks the end of Dimensional Diaries for the first quarter of this year. If you are a South Asian author who would like us to overview or spotlight their new releases here, please don’t hesitate to write to us at: hello@tasavvurnama.com.

We hope you will enjoy this new issue of Tasavvur. If you’d like to stay informed about our submissions schedule and news and updates, please consider signing up to our newsletter. If you’d like to donate or just generally know more about how you can support us, please visit our support page here. Moreover, to join our Tasavvur Book Club, where we read and discuss all things South Asian Spec Fic, just drop us a DM on instagram. 

I’ll bid you adieu until next quarter. Happy reading!