To Revolt is to be Undone, colonial espionage thriller, GigaNotoSaurus, June 2022
A customs inspector suspects her boss is working on secret orders during nighttime inspections of incoming cargo from the empire’s colonial outpost and must decide what to do about it.
Mythili’s knuckles whitened at the wheel and she bit through the pain of her cut. The police had cleared everything in her kitchen and medics bandaged her hands, sympathetically whispering in her ear it will be alright. In the morning, she did not feel alright.
The Agency of Metabolic Pathways, philosophical science fiction, Phase Change: Imagining Energy Futures by Twelfth Planet Press, May 2022
A scientist teaches a microbe how to capture carbon and fix nitrogen, the microbe teaches the scientist how to live in a burning world. Themes of immigration, love, home, ethical climate science, the capitalist/media urge to overproduce and compress (it’s got Les Mis cell culture graphs!), And one way to thrive in the anthropocene.
The stories of your home before her drove her to distraction. Your timid philosophy, a sapling of thoughts yet to form strong roots withered in her sharp glare and lack of care. Her time with you was as transient as a viral infection, but you suffered it wholly committed.
Factory Mother, climate gothic, Cast of Wonders, August 2021
A story about a refugee phycologist who solves a biotech manufacturing problem in a gothic mushroom salami manufacturing plant in a post-collapse North Carolina. Shows the importance of diversity in STEM.
When the poisonous cloud swept over the neighborhoods of Chandni Chowk and Punjabi Bagh, Hani thought the world had heaved humanity off the board, out the game, saying, You are done, you had your chance, and now playtime is over.
Seduced by the Ruler’s Gaze, nonfiction, Uncanny Magazine, March 2021
There is a dotted line between the depiction of colonial education in the Masquerade series, British education policies in 19th century India, and my schooling in a British Raj-era founded school. This essay describes the historical inspirations of colonial education as depicted in the Masquerade trilogy, and the way Baru decolonized her mind, and how it helped me do the same.
My brain is hardwired to construct stories in English.
But—
It does not mean I need to construct their stories.
Mist Songs of Delhi, fantasy, Podcastle, August 2020
A priest who turns people on deathbeds into cloud portraits of everlasting music wants to convince his mother to undergo the ritual, but she, a scientist, considers it pollution.
Death was the greatest uncertainty, but enspoolment removed so much of the mystery of the afterlife. When you can be song, why be nothing, at best, and something unknown, at worst?
Reviewed at:
Curious Fictions by Maria Haskins
Quick Sip Reviews by Charles Payseur
Tor’s Must-Read Short Fiction of August 2020 by Alex Brown
Twitter by J.Z. Kelley
Sid Jain 