July 2025
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India, Pakistan & the Central Asian Dancefloor
X.T.M contrasts India joining the CAFA Nations Cup, a sign of its growing standing in Central Asia, with its withdrawal from a World Championship of Legends match against Pakistan after…
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why romanticism?
A poem defending romanticism in a capitalist, post-ideological world, with a note explaining Lacan’s “Real”.
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Most Beautiful Island in the World
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Sticky Thinking; A Quick Note on Originality & Visibility
X.T.M announces a trial of pinning original, unpublished pieces to the top of the page, following a reader’s suggestion, and asks editors to use judgement about what counts as original.
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The Fading Red
The author explains the context of a poem written from the perspective of The Communist Manifesto, prompted by a Žižek–Peterson debate and by memories of reading the book in 2019,…
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What kind of nationalism is it to live in India and have an Arabic name?
X.T.M posts an extract from Kanhaiyalal Kapoor’s satirical story in Rakhshanda Jalil’s anthology of non-Muslim Urdu writers, in which a narrator renames and re-dresses himself to prove his Indianness, and…
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Obscure and Obscurity: Fatima Ijaz’s Shade of Longing
Furqan Ali reviews Fatima Ijaz’s debut collection The Shade of Longing, reading its abstraction and repeated, unresolved lines as an indictment of language’s failure to capture memory and longing, and…
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Community Guidelines – Please Read
X.T.M sets out house rules: authors may not void or edit one another’s posts or comments, Nivedita is made Editor with full discretion to void content, and breaches will be…
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Against Platonic Love
The writer introduces an interview with the Urdu poet Ahmad Faraz, whom he ranks behind Faiz, and translates Faraz’s answer rejecting platonic love in favour of passionate, complete love for…
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Offline Life
X.T.M says he will share more offline life, mentioning a temple visit and his Indo-Persian wrestling training.
