Editor’s Note

This issue is dedicated to the memory of Bashir Badr and Shereen Ratnagar.

Bashir Badr spent a lifetime reminding us that language can hold grief, love, longing, tenderness, and contradiction all at once. Through his ghazals, he gave people words for feelings they did not always know how to name. His poetry moved across generations, becoming part of conversations, memories, and everyday life. Even now, his lines continue to find people when they need them most.

Shereen Ratnagar spent her life asking difficult questions about the past. As one of India’s foremost archaeologists and scholars of the Indus Valley Civilization, her work challenged easy narratives and encouraged deeper, more critical ways of understanding history. She approached the past not as something distant, but as something alive, something that continues to shape how we see the present.

Rest in peace, Bashir Badr.
Rest in peace, Shereen Ratnagar.