Amy Slanger

Dear Ancestor, Explain Yourself

A formal complaint regarding civilization.

May 7, 2026 · 1,162 words

The Curl on the Corner of the Carpet

Pale clothes, missing buttons, and the sound of bangles being removed.

May 1, 2026 · 1,255 words

Grief

We Marked the Door Before We Mourned the Dead

The second wave, a sealed corridor, and how grief learned to stay inside

March 28, 2026 · 894 words

Faith

I Was Invited Twice

On asking God for the one thing you stopped asking anyone else for

March 25, 2026 · 1,027 words

I Tried Everything to Feel Something

Running, collapsing, observing, arranging, returning, in fragments

March 23, 2026 · 2,291 words

What We Brought With Us

It happened slowly.

March 7, 2026 · 1,456 words

The Stranger at the Oasis

Familiarity has a price. Yet living without it has a cost.

March 2, 2026 · 1,199 words

Her First Word Wasn’t What I Hoped to Hear

How I learned that what we call destiny is often just familiarity

February 17, 2026 · 628 words

Some People Don’t Come Back. They Just Continue Inside You.

The brain doesn’t hold on to people. It builds pathways around them.

January 22, 2026 · 858 words

The Coldest Hour

Age of Empathy · Winter Prompt

January 19, 2026 · 555 words

Everyone Is Healing. No One Is Accountable

Or: how therapy language became the most polite way to disappear

January 14, 2026 · 370 words

Cats

My Cat Ran Away and I’m Supposed to Pretend This Isn’t About Men

On trauma, tenderness, and the urge to flee from being loved

December 23, 2025 · 689 words

God

A Letter to My Ancestors

I Have Issues and It’s Your Fault.

December 13, 2025 · 780 words

Faith

I Keep a Knife Under My Mattress

Not an article for spirituality influencers.

December 9, 2025 · 964 words

Annual Performance Review in December

My DNA Is 70% Human, 20% Hibernating Bear and I am still figuring remaining 10%

December 5, 2025 · 1,017 words

Why Overthinkers Would Survive the Apocalypse

And make even the zombies reconsider their life choices.

November 26, 2025 · 1,274 words

The Ghosts We Inherited

Understanding the science behind our suffering and why Indians need to talk about mental health like it’s human, not haunted.

November 26, 2025 · 1,334 words

My Trauma with the Kitchen

The science behind fear and the memories that still live in the body.

November 20, 2025 · 773 words

Scientific Explanation of Why I Can’t Wake Up on Time

A letter to my very Indian mother with chappal throwing skills of an Indian Cricketer.

November 18, 2025 · 1,077 words

God

The Lahab Within

Pride doesn’t shout; it flickers! in brilliance, in envy, in the quiet moments we forget to bow.

November 16, 2025 · 802 words

My First Ever Kissing Scene

Brought to me by stealing cable and a few unfortunate moments from my innocent life.

November 14, 2025 · 779 words

The Guava Tree That Grew Up With Me

Childhood was Green.

November 14, 2025 · 683 words

My House is Bigger in My Memory

On childhood homes, sisterhood across continents, and why everything feels larger when we’re small.

November 8, 2025 · 589 words

The Perks of Broken Things

On forgotten drawers, cracked cups, and the quiet beauty of being left alone.

November 7, 2025 · 606 words

Jaagte Raho

Every night, someone stayed awake so we could dream.

November 6, 2025 · 780 words

God Tried to Fix My Sister. Then He Gave Up

A love letter to the most chaotic, radiant, impossible woman I know.

November 6, 2025 · 692 words

The Body’s Quiet Theology

Some pathways carry blood to keep me alive, while one carries stillness to remind me why.

October 28, 2025 · 1,538 words

Travel

Jeeti Raho

She once left home as a bride. Now she returns as a shadow.

October 27, 2025 · 909 words

The Good Girl’s Bad Guide to Accepting the Love She Deserves

A survival manual for women who’ve done their time in emotional rehab.

October 22, 2025 · 689 words

To the Shimmering Lights Hanging from the Balcony

A letter to an object that makes me so happy

October 22, 2025 · 552 words

Grief

Everything I’ve Ever Lost Is Still Somewhere, Existing Without Me

A meditation on loss, matter, and the divine recycling of everything

October 21, 2025 · 493 words

The Museum of Uncried Tears

A guided tour through the exhibits that men were never allowed to feel.

October 15, 2025 · 515 words

Everything’s Fine, Except Everything

Some days I’m not breaking down, just slowly dissolving into fluorescent light.

October 14, 2025 · 825 words

Things My Daughter Taught Me About Not Belonging

When home becomes a moving thing.

October 13, 2025 · 580 words

Yellow Should Be Edible

Some colors don’t just appear — they happen to you.

October 8, 2025 · 1,237 words

The Girl Who Read to Stay Alive

On books, belonging, and the strangers who save us. Finding tenderness, one secondhand book at a time.

October 5, 2025 · 695 words

Humor

Belonging Comes Late

On the fragments, ghosts, and fleeting moments we mistake for home.

September 26, 2025 · 893 words

The Woman Not Called Durga

A goddess is not always carved in stone. Sometimes she is a widow with eight children and ten invisible arms.

September 24, 2025 · 564 words

Guilt, My Most Loyal Pet

Forget cats and dogs. The only pet that outlives you is guilt.

September 24, 2025 · 797 words

Good Girls and Their Monsters

Every time women swallow anger, they grow a new beast inside them.

September 18, 2025 · 617 words

How to Survive the Circus (101 for Women Who Do It All)

No medals, no applause. Just the quiet constancy of women who keep the show alive.

September 18, 2025 · 1,240 words

Where the Lanes Still Remember Us

A mosque and adjoining graveyard in a quiet village.

September 16, 2025 · 932 words

The Art of Getting Naked

Taking your clothes off isn’t the first step of nakedness; shame is stitched tighter

September 12, 2025 · 926 words

Folding Paper, Breaking Heads, and Finding My First Mentor

A twenty-one-year-old in an orange shirt, and no elevator knowledge walks into her first corporate interview in an elevator company.

September 10, 2025 · 513 words

Humor

The Aftertastes of Laughter

Laughter doesn’t always heal. Sometimes it stings, sometimes it saves, sometimes it just misbehaves.

September 10, 2025 · 482 words

Cats

My Cat Turned Into a Groom and I Became the Mother-in-Law

This December, I may be promoted to cat grandma.

September 10, 2025 · 608 words

Congratulations! You’ve Won Trauma for Life

Love-bombing feels less romance and more a spam text: Congratulations! You’ve won trauma for life. And yes, I clicked.

September 5, 2025 · 830 words

The Object Decides How It Reveals Itself

Some objects refuse to tell you what they are. They wait until the right moment to show themselves.

September 1, 2025 · 649 words

The Nest on My AC Unit

A lifetime of loves, mistakes, and lessons, told through the clumsy little nest outside my window

August 27, 2025 · 803 words

The Mirage and the Matchbox: Part 4

If you have not read parts before these, well, let it be now.

August 26, 2025 · 565 words

The Mirage and the Matchbox: Part 3

This is Part 3 of a four-part memoir series about my first months in the UAE. here’s Part 1 and Part 2

August 25, 2025 · 578 words

The Crooked Thumb

Childhood was… cinematic.

August 25, 2025 · 1,373 words

How We Staged a Love Story in Maths Tuition

Maths: zero. Gossip algebra: full marks.

August 24, 2025 · 1,272 words

The Mirage and the Matchbox: Part 2

This is Part 2 of a four-part memoir series about my first months in UAE. Part 1 is here

August 22, 2025 · 1,303 words

The Mirage and the Matchbox — Part 1

It was the first time I was traveling abroad. I had recently gotten married, and my husband had gone ahead.

August 21, 2025 · 395 words

Grief

How to Look Functional While Falling Apart

From leaky ACs to butt-dialing your ex, here’s how to spin chaos into competence . One mop, one necklace, and one lie at a time.

August 14, 2025 · 906 words

Every Balcony Under My Moon

I’ve had more balconies than I’ve had support, and they’ve been far more reliable.

August 13, 2025 · 950 words

God, Take My Imagination and Burn It — Part 2

continuation to

August 11, 2025 · 855 words

Bitter Leaves, Sweet Memories

The Neem Tree —From punishment stick to parrot’s grave, it held more of my childhood than any diary could.

August 11, 2025 · 731 words

How to Survive Life Without Thriving

A memoir for anyone whose coping mechanisms have their own coping mechanisms

August 8, 2025 · 1,057 words

A Tribute to Jafri Uncle

Syed Naqi Husain Jafri was one of those men, not just for me, but for so many of the little kids who have now grown into adults. He…

August 6, 2025 · 658 words

Engaged to a JPEG: My Big Fat Nowhere Engagement

A solo engagement, a man with zero presence, and a whole family pretending it was normal.

August 5, 2025 · 954 words

This Mess is Mine

not-so-good girl who buys crayons like penance, interviews men who flinch, and finds comfort in chole

August 5, 2025 · 710 words

The Trade Fair, and a Love That Lingered

When love was just holding hands, jumping on gobi trucks, and laughing at sweet corn stuck in our teeth

August 4, 2025 · 773 words

Winter Afternoons, Terrace, and an Aeroplane in the Sky

All We Wanted Was the Sky

August 3, 2025 · 263 words

The Day Starts With My Autopsy

My soul has the whole day to roam around like dead body was just buried and I don’t know where is home.

August 1, 2025 · 385 words

God, Take My Imagination and Burn It — Part 1

Weekly continuation on A Study in Delulu

July 31, 2025 · 416 words

Kissa Kursi Ka

A chair. A quiet story of growing, working, aging — and the chairs that held it all.

July 28, 2025 · 539 words

When the Jinn Waited Their Turn

A postpartum story of blood, ghosts, milk, and choosing not to die just yet.

July 26, 2025 · 582 words

Victoria’s Secret, Vengeance, and a Very Lucky Man

Talk to me if we can make a Netflix series.

July 24, 2025 · 1,061 words

A Eulogy for My Overthinking Friend

If you’ve ever judged someone’s behavior without wondering what their brain might be battling, pause.

July 21, 2025 · 266 words

Home

Sometimes I feel like I should break open the walls of my house and walk through it barefoot. Feel the dust. Run my fingers along peeling…

August 3, 2017 · 2,140 words