Short Takes October 2025
- Raji Writes
- Oct 28
- 5 min read
Updated: 1 day ago
More Short Takes: on a literary journal, a film, a Berkeley Coffee Shop, and two novels translated from Malayalam.
Weaver’s Literary Review (Volume 1, Number 2, 2025)
Volume 1 Number 2 of Weaver’s Literary Review, “A Home for Writings by South Asian Americans and Others”, is beautiful and powerful, with poems, essays, translations, short stories and a review. I have read a few pieces so far, and am looking forward to reading the rest. I am honored to have in it my story Dreams.
The cover is a detail from Amna Ali’s stunning painting that I had the pleasure of seeing at her exhibition in San Francisco in October 2025. Branches reach towards the sky in shades of blue, green, gray, black and white.
The issue sets the tone immediately, opening with the transcript of the phone call between 6-year-old Hind Rajab and the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, in which she begs them to rescue her before her unspeakably heartless and soulless murder by Israeli forces. The car in which she was killed had 355 bullets fired on it.
This powerful beginning is followed by editor Moazzam Sheikh’s strong and courageous editorial in which he confronts the Gaza genocide and exhorts writers to engage with it.
Get your copy here. https://weaverspress.com/bookshop/
Mississippi Masala (dir Mira Nair)
On a high from Zohran Mamdani willing the NYC mayoral elections, I decide to honor his mother Mira Nair by watching some of the films she has directed. I thought I might start with her first, Salaam Bombay, but it does not appear to be available for streaming in the United States without some version of pledging my first-born, which I am not prepared to do. So, I landed on her 1991 film Mississippi Masala, which I last saw a couple of decades ago.
The scene that is etched in my mind (well, other than the scenes with the young Denzel Washington and Sarita Choudhury) is that of the little girl Mina leaving her home in Uganda in the back of a car with her parents (played by Roshan Seth and Sharmila Tagore), waving goodbye to a little boy with the soundtrack of a child softly and repeatedly saying “Bye…bye…bye….bye…” The extreme and abiding loss in that scene was unforgettable.
What a film! Keenly observed racial dynamics among South Asians, Blacks and Whites, sprinkled with the hilarity brought by Mina’s cousins (played by Ranjit Chowdhry and Mohan Gokhale), and all-round excellent acting, with Mira Nair herself playing the role of a gossiping aunty. It’s available for rent in the US on Amazon Video.
Food and Drink
Elaichi Co.
The Offspring started her junior year at UC Berkeley this fall. In exploring the downtown area, we came upon Elaichi Co. a café where we immediately tried the karak chai. YUM!
Later, she reported that she tried a gajar ka muffin, and that it was “soooo good.” The menu described it as
gajar ka muffin, seasonal!
carrot chunks, nuts, flour, butter, eggs, cardamom, ginger, sugar
For her birthday, she wanted a carrot cake. After the usual explorations: Safeway, Draeger’s, Lavender N’Cream, it struck me: why not ask Elaichi Co if they would bake a gajar ka… cake?! The head pastry chef, Ruby Pokras and I exchanged emails on this, and even though they don’t usually make cakes, she immediately and graciously agreed to bake a cake for the Offspring’s birthday!
And what a cake it was. Stunningly beautiful with a cream cheese icing, a simple piping, and a few crushed pistachios sprinkled on the border.
How did it taste? Almost indescribably delicious. I just can’t. A friend described it as “quite possibly the best cake I have ever had.” I might have to concur. Oh my God.
The Offspring and all her friends loved it.
When I went to pick up the cake, I asked to add on an elaichi bun, as I have a tradition of giving Sunaina a small cup cake or similar treat "just for her" on her birthday.
elaichi bun, popular!
flour, milk, eggs, butter, sugar, cardamom
The gentleman who did the check-out would not take payment for the bun, saying it was on the house! How incredibly nice. Sunaina gobbled it up in under a minute (she had just finished working out :-)) and I got to taste a bite. Also delicious!
If you happen to be in the Berkeley area, check it out at 2161 allston way ste c, berkeley, ca 94704
Books in Translation
The Gospel of Yudas (Yudasinte Suvishesham) by K.R. Meera
Translated from Malayalam by Rajesh Rajamohan
K. R. Meera, a journalist and author who writes in Malayalam, has won many awards for her fiction. This novella is a page turner.
When she is 15 years of age, Prema, the daughter of a police officer in Kerala meets and falls in love with a man who goes by Yudas (Judas) though his name is Das. Yudas dives into lakes and recovers dead bodies. Prema’s father, an alcoholic, recounts chilling stories of how he and his colleagues tortured young Naxalites during India’s Emergency.
Yudas is haunted by memories of his fellow revolutionaries, tortured and killed by the police. With gripping accounts of uprisings, demonstrations, resistance to corruption, alongside the romantic yearnings of the characters, Meera has written a slim but powerful book.
On the Banks of the Mayyazhi by M. Mukundan
Translated from Malayalam by Gita Krishnankutty
Mayyazhi (also known as Mahe) in North Kerala is formerly a part of French India. Like Pondicherry, it has historical ties to the French East India Company and is now part of the Union territory of Puducherry. It is the hometown of beloved Malayalam author M. Mukundan, a former diplomat who served as cultural attaché to the French Embassy in Delhi.
On the Banks of the Mayyazhi is a fascinating account of Mayyazhi in the 1940s, when it was a French colony. The descriptions and names of the streets and the French rulers, and the sprinkling of French through the book brought to life a part of India with which I was not previously familiar.
The older generation, used to colonial rule, is comfortable with it, whereas the younger generation craves and fights for independence. Dasan, the protagonist, is a brilliant student who embraces the role of revolutionary and freedom fighter. In clashes between the French and their loyalists with the freedom fighters. the close border with the Indian Union allows rapid escapes to safety. Several romances punctuate the narrative: Chandrika’s love for Dasan, Kurumbi Amma and Leslie Sayiv, and the courtesan Kunhirami's love for David Sayiv.
A recurring image is of Velliyan Rock in the sea. The dragonflies hovering around it are believed to be souls resting between births, and the sight of them brings some measure of comfort as lives are lost.
This book took me further on one of my reading goals: to find and read anything and everything that Gita Krishnankutty has translated from Malayalam to English. Stay tuned for more.
Many congratulations on yet another story, Raji! And thank you for the recommendations. I look forward to reading them and writing about them on my Substack....