within A Sequel to “Elsewhere” and “Stillness” Part I The night Miran got married, Rayhan couldn’t sit still. It began not as panic or heartbreak, but a low, indistinct hum in his chest, like the faint vibration of an elevator cable somewhere deep below ground. He first noticed it while brushing crumbs from his …
stillness A sequel to Elsewhere Part I Saira stirred her tea counterclockwise, slow and soundless. The teaspoon never touched the sides. She watched the leaves spin like indecisive dancers, her face composed in that half-soft, half-blank way that revealed nothing. Light from the café’s high windows slid over her wrist like silk, warm and …
elsewhere Part I Miran stood quietly on the edge of his seventh-floor terrace, fingers brushing the rusted railing where the paint had faded to memory. Below him, Dhaka stretched out in the heavy stillness of late afternoon, its breath a jumbled symphony of traffic hum, rickshaw bells, and the thin, aching call of a …
a stolen life Part 1 Dhaka, 1970: when the city held its breath, waiting to exhale revolution. The air vibrated with the hum of change, a nation stirring in the belly of unrest. In the heart of this anticipation, Neeta was born, a fragile arrival into a world painted with hopes and haunted by whispers …
amela Part 1 “But perhaps you hate a thing and it is good for you; and perhaps you love a thing and it is bad for you. And Allah knows, while you know not.” (Quran 2:216) Amela Begum was born in a village where the sound of trains was part of life itself. The steady …
The Quiet of What Remains Afnan woke to the familiar buzz of the phone on the bedside table, a sound that had become part of mornings in the same way a dull ache settles into the body. The name on the screen blinked. Oni. A reminder of last night’s argument, which had stretched late into …
the quiet simmer The rain had arrived, as it always did in the monsoon, with no warning but the thickening of the air. It was late, and the city of Dhaka held its breath, suspended in the heavy humidity, before the first drop struck the windows. Rayhan stood barefoot on the cool mosaic tiles of …
Night, Before Dawn Illustration: Nahfia Jahan Monni Jamil: Just Another Night Every time Jamil has a night shift, he feels like quitting his job. Staying up all night, two nights in a week! Sleeping during the day is just not the same thing. But this is his own doing. When he studied Hotel Management, he …
