"The dogs and I speak to each other: as bodies, as clay to clay, as helpless dice rolling across a chausar board magicked by conniving kin.
It is in loving each other that we make our fragilities bearable, make steadfast our mutual tenderness..."
tinyurl.com/2tza3wy3
#essays #dogs
An essay I wrote for @plotthoundmag.bsky.social is now free to read! 🐕
It explores the dog & human bond across the personal & the mythological.
You can read it here:
tinyurl.com/2tza3wy3
#essays #dogs
cover image of Plott Hound Magazine Issue 3 - Fall 2025, fox surrounded by antlers
Issue 3 is now available and free to read on our website!
plotthoundmag.com/issues/#issu...
Hey
Sorry I didn't revert earlier. We can DM over Twitter (which really sounds better). I'm on the same ID - skendhasingh :)
I’m Indian, a writer, and quite attuned to cultural nuance — I’d be happy to help review your webcomic when you’re ready. Happy to chat :)
Spolia becoming stories... Skendha Singh's marvellous essay on walking through Delhi. @skendhasingh.bsky.social share.google/VmgzoeNdhZQ1...
4/
The loss isn’t just ecological. It’s cultural.
I miss the colorful walls and ornate doors like in my nani's home, Indian motifs that sought blessings. Today, they're replaced by the clean-girl aesthetic where it's affordable.
What doesn't conform is garbage. And someone else's problem.
3/
Now, our cities are pockmarked with islands of heat.
Concrete traps heat. Glass magnifies it.
Then we trap ourselves in air-conditioned towers to escape the consequences of our own making, having stocked up on farm-to-table foods & cotton clothes.
That’s climate absurdity—dressed as modernity.
2/
Like Jane Jacobs, I see the city as a living organism.
Growing up, I lived in places where seasons changed:
where flute sellers’ music echoed through alleys, summers arrived with the falsay seller’s songs.
We shared lives in & with the city—instead of just taking up space.
What happens when the media turns a dog into a menace?
– NDTV & Republic made snarling dogs click-bait.
– It becomes public panic, then policy: SC orders mass removal—not sterilization.
Photography isn’t art. It’s power.
👉 tinyurl.com/22ajau84
📸 The frame is not just about aesthetics — it’s geopolitics.
A dehumanising image in the paper can become a policy memo tomorrow.
And for Indians abroad, it can become the stare, the slur, the threat.
More from @chiragwakaskar.bsky.social on #WorldPhotographyDay here: tinyurl.com/22ajau84
In India, a Supreme Court directive orders street dogs removed in weeks. In Delhi, leaders celebrate — using Swami Vivekananda’s image.
But history shows he cherished animals and lived the ethic “the world is one family."
tinyurl.com/3tn88xvd
On #InternationalYouthDay, Delhi’s leaders post Vivekananda’s image while backing policies that threaten the lives of lakhs of street dogs.
Vivekananda loved animals. He even had a dog named Bagha.
I write about the deep hypocrisy that is endangering many🐾
tinyurl.com/539yntkt
In postcolonial societies, “looking” is never neutral 📷
Photographer-curator Chirag Wakaskar & I talk about how to resist the colonial gaze & what it costs.
Link ↓
"Until the lion learns how to write, every story will glorify the hunter.”
On the politics of the gaze — and reimagining how we picture the world.
tinyurl.com/22ajau84
I wrote about how completing a sketchbook helped me navigate a creative crisis/writing block.
It would be wonderful to hear your thoughts on it! 💫
tinyurl.com/5n7fzb3j
Three years, fifty pages, and a whole lot of messy joy.
I wrote about finishing my sketchbook, surviving the middle, and how art thawed my writing.
Read here: tinyurl.com/5n7fzb3j
Re Astronomer, Coldplay & all that jumbotron - hello, Mercury Rx!
I picked up Help Thanks Wow needing comfort. Instead, I found a question that erased too much. And suffering rendered picturesque.
On glibness & Godliness
tinyurl.com/bdd6ekru
Japanese manga is a part of the University syllabi. Korean skincare gets celebrities raving about glass skin.
Indian designs? Get appropriated as “boho.”
I wrote about Prada, Kolhapuris, and the long afterlife of colonial perception today for Substack.
tinyurl.com/3nx9yvmf
Finding my footing on a brand new platform. Feel very Frodo Baggins-y. If you're also writing, wondering and wittering - hello!
