Word Count: 514 | Reading Time: 2 min
Apocalypse seems to be on everyone’s minds nowadays. I can’t imagine why. Must be something in the water. This is likely why the latest issue of Tasavvur has turned out to be full of stories about facing things outside your control.
Ranging from messianic coronations to oppressive social systems, the conflicts in these stories can’t (and won’t) be solved by a plucky, young protagonist wielding a named, sharp sword. But the characters we follow in them do fight back, even if they don’t (and couldn’t) win. It’s because they’re only human, even when they’re not.
The issue starts with the end of the world. In Amina Baig’s Aftermath, we join Sila, a snarky thirty-something who, gifted/cursed with prophetic dreams of the upcoming cataclysm, decides to save the world so she won’t die unfulfilled, unmarried, and unslept. Baig’s wry narration and rapid-fire banter keeps the tone breezy even as we start unpacking the quiet anger that simmers underneath the story’s surface.
Next, Pravy Jha introduces us to The Girl Who Borrowed Tomorrows, an unnamed narrator starts finding memories her mother is losing, and has to make uncomfortable decisions about what to do with them. In a sharp exploration of a caregiver’s agency in the face of degenerative disease, Jha gives us a protagonist we can empathize with, if not one we can always agree with.
Amita Basu’s The Casting follows a year in a backyard garden filled with animals of all stripes (and spots and feathers etc.) who, gulled by seemingly divine intervention, crown a runtish snail their messiah. The tale of the Grandomagnosnailus is fabulous in the original and current sense of the word, and Basu’s vivid imagery and mythic tone will linger with you for a long time.
Finally, Vrinda Baliga’s takes us to a world that follows its own rules of spacetime in The Shape of Time. Grounding us in the perspective of Yug, an academic-turned-soldier in a rigidly hierarchical society, Baliga takes what could have been an exercise in puzzlebox narration and elevates it into a story about warping yourself to fit in with terrible people.
Rounding off the issue is Dimensional Diaries, a South Asian fiction roundup by Ayesha Channa, and an interview with Usman T. Malik by Maliha Rao and Mushba Said, in which he touches on the state of the world (on fire etc.) and how to keep writing in it, and cover art from the incredible Zaynah Abbas, who has taken this opportunity to turn the colonizer meme of “but we gave railroads” on its head.
A final note for everyone who submitted to this issue. It has been a privilege to read your work and I’m deeply thankful for you sharing it with me and the reading team. Writing is hard (see above for world on fire etc.) Submitting is harder. There are a million other things we could choose to do with our time, but I’m glad you and I have chosen to do this instead.
I hope you keep sending Tasavvur your best, and thank you for your time.
Cheers,
Abhijeet
