Vidya Panicker, a writer from Kerala, India has her poems, stories and translations published or upcoming in journals and magazines including The Feminist Review, Muse India, Himal South Asian, East Lit journal, Aberration Labyrinth, Spark journal, Indian review, Indian Ruminations, Raed Leaf India, Brown girl magazine, Femina fast fiction, Contemporary Literary Review of India, 4and20poetry.com, and Reading hour magazine. Some of her work have been translated and published in other Indian languages as well.
She won the second prize in the All India Poetry Contest 2014 held by the Poetry Society of India and is currently an editor on the poetrycircle.com

Sudhappan woke up to the persistent early morning sunlight seeping in through the holes in their rotting coconut thatch.

Every year, when the rains began, their mother promised herself that after harvests, they would get a new roof weaved. This item would go down further and further on the list of their expenses and priorities, until the next rains, when every single glass, cup, pot, pan and coconut shell would be dispersed on the floor of their tiny hut, to collect water dripping down the roof, with the 4 of them huddled in a corner, shivering from cold and the shock of thunder and lightning. With the monsoons just over a month away, Sudhappan realized that this year would be no different. Fortunately, the schools remain closed until the rains subsided as they would function as relief shelters for the ones displaced during the imminent floods, which always accompanied the rains. Their hut, along with a handful of others was situated at a slightly higher elevation, which barricaded them against the rising flood water most of the years. Read the rest of the story…