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Essays, Personal Essay

Memories of Reading: Part III

By Chitralekha Basu

“Each re-telling of those extraordinary tales of derring-do was invested with a sense of immediacy and cinematic detailing.” Chitralekha Basu concludes her memoir on the literature that shaped her.

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Essays, Memoir, Personal Essay

Memories of Reading: Part II

By Chitralekha Basu

“Ma got totally exasperated with the fights, which had become ritual, she would have with me over who got to read Desh first.” Part II of Chitralekha Basu’s literary childhood.

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Essays, Memoir, Personal Essay

Memories of Reading: Part I

By Chitralekha Basu

“I had an insatiable appetite for stories and would badger my parents to read from the books I had accumulated.” Chitralekha Basu reflects on the literature that shaped her writing.

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Articles, Essays

Randy Coal-cutter: Part II

By Chitralekha Basu

“New constructions in the city — often featureless, rectilinear beehives built inside gated compounds — are frequently christened as a ‘court’, ‘manor’ or an ‘enclave’.” Part II of Chitralekha Basu’s look at how English is used in modern Calcutta.

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Articles, Commentary, Essays

Randy Coal-cutter: Part I

By Chitralekha Basu

“The tradition of adapting English words as part of Bengali colloquial speech is at least two-hundred-years old.” Chitralekha Basu explores the English language in everyday Bengali speech.

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Articles, Essays

Vegetarian Meat

By Chitralekha Basu

“Evidently, getting to like vegetarian meat is a matter of acquired taste and it’s a dish probably not for the faint-hearted.” Chitralekha Basu looks into the origins of an oxymoron in Calcutta.

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In the Magazine

A Word from the Editor

Don’t cry like a girl. Be a (wo)man.

Why holding up the women in our lives can help build a nation, in place of tearing it down.

Literature

This House is an African House

"This house is an African house./ This your body is an African woman’s body..." By Kadija Sesay.

Literature

Shoots

"Sapling legs bend smoothly, power foot in place,/ her back, parallel to solid ground,/ makes her torso a table of support..." By Kadija Sesay.

Literature

A Dry Season Doctor in West Africa

"She presses her toes together. I will never marry, she says. Jamais dans cette vie! Where can I find a man like you?" By...

In the Issue

Property of a Sorceress

"She died under mango trees, under kola nut/ and avocado trees, her nose pressed to their roots,/ her hands buried in dead leaves, her...

Literature

What Took Us to War

"What took us to war has again begun,/ and what took us to war/ has opened its wide mouth/ again to confuse us." By...

Literature

Sometimes, I Close My Eyes

"sometimes, this is the way of the world,/ the simple, ordinary world, where things are/ sometimes too ordinary to matter. Sometimes,/ I close my...

Literature

Quarter to War

"The footfalls fading from the streets/ The trees departing from the avenues/ The sweat evaporating from the skin..." By Jumoke Verissimo.

Literature

Transgendered

"Lagos is a chronicle of liquid geographies/ Swimming on every tongue..." By Jumoke Verissimo.

Fiction

Sketches of my Mother

"The mother of my memories was elegant. She would not step out of the house without her trademark red lipstick and perfect hair. She...

Fiction

The Way of Meat

"Every day—any day—any one of us could be picked out for any reason, and we would be... We’d part like hair, pushing into the...

Fiction

Between Two Worlds

"Ursula spotted the three black students immediately. Everyone did. They could not be missed because they kept to themselves and apart from the rest...."...

Essays

Talking Gender

"In fact it is often through the uninformed use of such words that language becomes a tool in perpetuating sexism and violence against women...

Essays

Unmasking Female Circumcision

"Though the origins of the practice are unknown, many medical historians believe that FGM dates back to at least 2,000 years." Gimel Samera looks...

Essays

Not Just A Phase

"...in the workplace, a person can practically be forced out of their job by discrimination, taking numerous days off for fear of their physical...

Essays

The Birth of Bigotry

"The psychology of prejudice demands that we are each our own moral police". Maria Amir on the roots of bigotry and intolerance.

Fiction

The Score

"The person on the floor was unmistakeably dead. It looked like a woman; she couldn’t be sure yet..." By Hawa Jande Golakai.

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One last love letter...

April 24, 2021

It has taken us some time and patience to come to this decision. TMS would not have seen the success that it did without our readers and the tireless team that ran the magazine for the better part of eight years.

But… all good things must come to an end, especially when we look at the ever-expanding art and literary landscape in Pakistan, the country of the magazine’s birth.

We are amazed and proud of what the next generation of creators are working with, the themes they are featuring, and their inclusivity in the diversity of voices they are publishing. When TMS began, this was the world we envisioned…

Though the magazine has closed and our submissions shuttered, this website will remain open for the foreseeable future as an archive of the great work we published and the astounding collection of diverse voices we were privileged to feature.

If, however, someone is interested in picking up the baton, please email Maryam Piracha, the editor, at maryamp@themissingslate.com.

Farewell, fam! It’s been quite a ride.