Volume 6 Numbers 1 and 2 | Apr-Sept 2026

Moonwalking for Bread and Butter

Story idea by Ruhaan | Story by Mohd Salman | Art by Annada Menon

Ruhaan’s pitch:

My superpower: Imagining myself as SRK from his films – sometimes ‘Chak De’, sometimes ‘Om Shanti Om’ – and sometimes concerts.

I don’t mean that I’m always performing – I frame things in my head, add background score, and suddenly act it out – the modern term for it is ‘being delusional’.

Why it matters to me: Because growing up, not everything made sense. There wasn’t always resolution, or clarity. (Applause, though? Always. I’m kind of a starkid in that sense.) But through stories, music, cartoons and movies, I learned how to hold moments – to let them have weight. I learned to notice things. And then I started turning those moments into stories. Some stayed in notebooks. Some became scripts. But all of them? Mine.

What inspired it: A weird mix of SRK’s charm, rockstar approach to performances – whether it be a class test or a blood test, and the feeling of being an observer – someone who watches the world like it’s a story. I guess I always felt like if I couldn’t control what was happening, I could at least direct perspective, or sound. And somewhere along the way, that became power.

How I’d use it: To give people language for their own inner worlds. To help someone feel seen in a character, or heard in a line, or moved by a moment that makes them say, “That’s me”. I want to write stories, songs, make films – anything – that reminds people they’re not weird for feeling deeply. They’re just alive. I want to make people feel more than introvert/extrovert or an ambivert; in my space, they are just “expressive-verts”!