Full Description
A fierce and witty portrait of an unraveling nation.
Salt and Pepper is a collection of literary columns that defy convention—acerbic, tender, and unrelenting in their gaze. Written between the margins of news and national spectacle, these pieces are not topical commentary but something far more enduring: political satire that reads like poetry, reportage that mutates into parable, lament, and fable. In these dispatches from a fractured republic, written over the past decade, journalist Sankarshan Thakur captures the surreal absurdities and deep disquiet of an India caught between thunderous assertion and muffled dissent. Governments speak in acronyms, mobs chant in hashtags, silence acquires a sound—and memory becomes an act of resistance. These are chronicles of a society slipping into curated amnesia, of belonging turned conditional, and of patriotism twisted into performance.
Contents
1.As if a name we cannot print
2.TheChaiwala
3.The mimic is now missing
4.A General, and retired? HoyNaKi?
5.Teetar ke do aagey teetar
6.All for one and one for won
7.FreakyLeaks
8.Goka Gola is the only one
9.Oh fit! Is it that easy?
10.And the rain as well my drink
11.I am from here from here from here
12.So there, forward-looking folks
13.Workman's secret diary
14.Time flies but also crawls
15.It's time when its time has come
16.Calling out for you, the People
17.Memory of my melancholy lasches
18.Where is the Chow? Kidar hai?
19.Departed. Arrived. Departs, Arrives.
20.The dead go where they go
21.In desolate places, desperate men
22.I shall tell you bedtime stories
23.So that nobody can be somebody
24.Badshahat Badshahat Badshahat Ameen!
25.Once upon a golden bird
26.Those on whom the sky fell
27.Let us now praise some villainy
28.Did I not say Soney ki Chidiya?
29.But are masks not a bad thing?
30.Sing me a song that isn't too long
31.So often we see our bits of sky
32.You see, this is called a daymare
33.Are you so sure you are?
34.Oh, we are such a vexed people
35.Anything goes, everything is history
36.Now how about some special status?
37.Haven't you ever heard UnKiBaat?
38.Please dread the half of all pants
39.Hashtag: Talk to me, I am human
40.When screaming is what's sacred
41.What this is and is not about
42.Allowed one word every sentence
43.Khol do: Saadat Hasan Manto
44.Questions
45.The ravens call on the roosters
46.You, the People, are anti-national
47.Aankh mein bhar lo paani
48.I am the bear
