A feminist activist from Israel revisits her partner’s all but eye-witness account of a young Palestinian woman in occupied Ramallah who was forced to provide sexual services to Israeli tax officials. Years after the facts, she turns the rigor of her critical gaze at her failure of vision and potential action. Privileged Jewish, Ashkenazi, educated, middle class, she is also placed beyond the pale by her dissent and her lesser gender. But, she says, “This telling is not a ritual of absolution. It is not a confession. I am trying to understand, to locate where and how it works – the trap. The paralysis. The silencing. … The record I’m keeping admits to the guilt, takes responsibility for it. Squirms with it. Dwells with it, squirming. It also recognizes the wisdom; of managing within constraints, of identifying the possibilities, of slow, persistent negotiating, of painstaking work against the grain of, but still within, femininity.” Originally published in Hebrew in the collection “Home Archaeology: Essay Tales” and re-rendered into English by the author, this piece unearths some of the most unspoken, deeply buried and horrific layers of occupation, subjection and collusion.

In a quest to find himself within a greater history of his place of birth, Murtaza Fazily recounts his conversation with a renowned historian of Ladakh, Haji Sadi Ali Sadiq Sahib, who narrates the tales of castles in ruins brought back to life (through the oral tradition) and the rise of the kings who built them. From the mouth of an aged historian and the man who sought answers and lent a persistent ear, here is the story of Purig and its forgotten history.

Murtaza Fazily visits his birthplace to meet young and senior archers, sports officials, bureaucrats, prominent cultural figures and residents to gather their perspective on archery and its essential place in Ladakhi society and its culture. In the story narrated mainly from the dialogues with such figures, a history of archery, its tradition, its transformation and its present condition is discussed thoroughly. The writer has chosen to remain loyal to the words of those who inform his research about the status of archery in Ladakh by providing ample space for their statements and accounts. As such, the story that follows is primarily driven by such statements and accounts by the same people who practice and promote archery while struggling to keep it relevant.

Majid Maqbool recalls a night in the Kashmiri 90s when a band of unexpected visitors come knocking at the door. The account told from the perspective of an adolescent narrator recounts a story that is far too familiar to the Kashmiri population that has seen war and conflict at their doorsteps. However, such stories many times remain unwritten and have been transmitted more often through word of mouth and in many a conversation. The writer here successfully captures one such story and narrates it through the written word, introducing elements of storytelling and memory-making that are not habitually put into practice around such topics given the air of trauma, fear and censorship that keeps Kashmiris from recalling their own experience of Kashmir, particularly since the early 90s.