Thread by @theBekku

It's that time of the year. So here's some good #IndianSF i've enjoyed in 2020; short fiction in English that's available to read for free. Given there's been quite a few of them (good year for Indian SF, yay!), this thread won't be short...

The stories in @UnseenFic, the speculative flash fiction zine started by @anandphilipc & @kazarelth. 7 eps so far (hope more are on way) with 2 stories each that you can read or listen, by @_drongo, @iRatzzz, @swarraj, @alwayskasht,
@WhatAboutMyStar et al
unseenfiction.substack.com

Strangely Familiar Tales by @GranthaMaven. 3 feminist stories inspired by Indian myth, but with a modern twist. A most welcome break from tired mythsploitation remixes. Download & read for free here:
store.pothi.com/book/ebook-vij…
#IndianSF

Jeevarasam (lit. Essence of Life), a very early Tamizh SFnal tales by Ponniyin Selvan writer, Kalki Krishnamurthy. Yes, not a 2020 story but from 1930s. Here because it was translated into English for the first time this year, thanks to @venkatTCV...
mapillaibench.blogspot.com/2020/08/jeevar…

Magic, memory & dreams all collide as we peek into the history of a beautiful land (not unlike Kashmir) in @prashatsa's lovely tale of resistance and culture, In
Seven Dreams of a Valley in @BCSmagazine...
beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/stories/seven-… #IndianSF

Love Life of John Doe by K. Raghasudhan in which a genius sends humankind on the path to extinction in a pact with an A.I. as he seeks love...
clarkesworldmagazine.com/raghasudhan_11… @clarkesworld

A new world, new journeys, old memories & echoes from the past, forgotten stories & – straddling them all – jackfruits, in @rupsadey's @clarkesworld story, The Land of Eternal Jackfruits (Also, anything with jackfruit in it is automatically good)
clarkesworldmagazine.com/dey_11_20/ #IndianSF

In Love Laws and a Locked Heart by @sengupta_tamoha in the recently-returned @fantasymagazine, a princess has her heart locked when she was an infant & years later finds a reason to look for the key...
fantasy-magazine.com/new/new-fictio…

A Time Mistake by @architamittra, a time loop tale featuring a familiar virus, in which a time traveller must set in motion events that lead to an ideal future, starting with the murder of a certain politician...
medium.com/interstellar-f…

Tesu by @gaachburi, a story from ages ago i.e. early in the year which is eerily similar to what transpired later. Also, DON'T go with strange beautiful women you meet alone on the road...
himalmag.com/tesu-short-sto… #IndianSF

This touching story in @anathemaspec, Heard, Half-Heard, in the Stillness by @singlecrow is not your typical Diwali story. Features @ISRO, India's space programme and a grandmother who can tell the future...
anathemamag.com/heard-half-hea… #IndianSF

Moving & melodic, Mist Songs of Delhi by @Sid__j on @PodCastle_org is about death, grief, memories and 'enspoolment' where the (deeds of the) dead come back as songs...
podcastle.org/2020/08/18/pod…

Mortality & the nature of reality is brilliantly explored in @ArulaRatnakar's far-future tale of (post)humans, 'Lone Puppeteer of a Sleeping City' from @Clarkesworld. Mind-bender of a read with ethics, philosophy, neuroscience &
more...
clarkesworldmagazine.com/ratnakar_09_20/ #IndianSF

Against the backdrop of the Delhi police killing vampires (having ended their agree agreement), a lesbian and her 200-year-old vampire mother try to come to terms with each other, in Umrao by @gathawrites
outofprintmagazine.co.in/archive/june_2… ht @_drongo

Set in a future, post-capitalist world where one tries to leave as light a Moral footprint as possible, Optimizing the Path to Enlightenment by @priyachandscifi explores what a Jain dystopia (utopia?) could be like...
clarkesworldmagazine.com/chand_06_20/ #IndianSF @clarkesworld

Again from @clarkesworld, @RadhaPyari's Ask the Fireflies is a beautiful, heartbreaking story about a medical AI monitor as it tries to help a child in a coma..
clarkesworldmagazine.com/sand_09_20/

If you like cats (or even if you don't), read Magnificent Maurice, or the Flowers of Immortality by @Rati_Mehrotra in @LightspeedMag. Funny & warm, with a whole bunch of felines and cat-guardian of the Tree of Life . Also, cats...
lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/magnif…