Author: Shumaila Khan

From the heart of Lucknow’s bookfair

Dear reader, It has been a while since we caught up. And because I’ve promised myself to stop oversharing, I’ll simply say this: I was busy, and writing had to wait. Now, as I nurse my way out of a stubborn writer’s block, I thought I’d share a story from […]

What Your Jeans Say About You

How Sydney Sweeney, American Eagle, and a pair of blue pants unraveled a century of denim politics. Two blondes, two commercials, two different claims on Americana, and a nation that, as usual, read far more into the second one than the makers ever intended. BeyoncĂ©, in Levi’s, has been playing […]

The Summer I Went to Therapy

My life: the perfect opening montage to a 2000s coming-of-age rom-com. Me, the golden star of my family, twirling through whimsical outfits, dragging around a bag so heavy it could double as a personality trait, and carrying that unshakable, naĂŻve main-character belief that people are inherently good, and that love […]