It’s time to let my world turn again. Sometimes it’s ok to give in.

In a world of increasing insecurity – at the international and national levels, where the media today reports 300 times more crime (even as crime rates are falling) than a decade ago, fear is all pervasive. Hypermasculinity thrives on fear and in the creation of a false solution to this uncertainty in a power-centered, aggressive ideal. Policy makers have adopted it, as can easily be evidenced in mistakes of giant proportions like the Iraq war and even the US invasion of South Vietnam several decades ago. It may be impossible to create a truly liberal and equal society so long as we are hedged by a realist, Statist and hypermasculine understanding of international relations that creates a double standard – liberal democracy for the home and an illiberal and aggressive culture outside of it.

 
By Bharat Menon

 
There was that half-smile that lit up his face. She could not ignore it. It made him look over-confident, even arrogant. But she could not forget it.
 
She should never have gotten the door. He stood outside, his tall figure bent, as he removed his shoes and put it on the shoe rack. He was dark. [...]

The faint whistle grew louder. She saw the reddish-brown blur coming closer. It came to a stop in front of her. Her ailing eyes made out the outline of the train – the three o’clock. It was time. Her grandson would come anytime now.
Others told her that he had run away with the gypsies. But [...]

In part five
The bird flew out again. The sky was a warm blue, inviting and beautiful. It soared across it and then, came to rest on the branch of a tree. Restful. Happy. The trees rustled in the wind, the flowers shivered shyly and the bushes…
 What was that in the bushes? In the darkness, in [...]

In part four
The bird pushed the door of the cage slowly. It was not locked. It flew open. It paused for a minute looking at the world around it, without bars obstructing it. It was a beautiful world. And there it was- the sky, pure and blue- calling to it.  It opened its wings and flew [...]