The forest is a deep verdant green and thickly wooded. On the sloping banks, it gives way to shorter plants, and then pebbled rocks, until right at the bottom you find a river, clear and pristine, babbling along on its way. The only sounds are crickets…and a soft percussion beat.

You look around, hoping to find its source. Who’s playing drums in the jungle?

But no. It isn’t drums at all. It’s water.

Ëtëtung, or water music, is a longstanding and revered tradition among the women of Vanuatu. It’s based on many of the activities they already perform in the…

Dear Readers,

It’s been one hell of a year, hasn’t it? And everytime we think we might have reached the ninth circle, it quickly becomes apparent we’re really only somewhere on the periphery. Eight months into the year, and nearly six into lockdown, but it may well have been years for all it feels like.

It’s a whole new meaning of “Are we there, yet?”

Fingers crossed, we are.

Hello, Snipette readers!

This is the fifteenth time we’ve written that opening line, and it never gets old. Our first ever piece from three years ago had a grand total of ten views and four claps, and, to us, that was blinding success. Today, we regularly clock in hundreds upon hundreds of views per article, and nearly half of all our pieces get featured. Our metric of “success” has certainly shifted, and we hope it continues to do so!

Over the last year, in particular, our publication has grown leaps and bounds behind the scenes. We’ve had pieces from over…

Hello, Snipette Readers!

Right now, it feels like the whole world is in flux. The coronavirus pandemic is sweeping up the world in its clutches and it seems no one is above it. Our country, India, is going to remain under a full lockdown until mid-April. Times are serious, and tense, and more than a little anxious.

In such a setting, it may be more necessary than ever to take consistency where we can find it, and more importantly, allow ourselves to indulge in the lighter moments of life.

Which is why, here at Snipette, we’re going to be more…

Hello everyone,

Badri and Manasa, editors at Snipette, here.

2019 has certainly been a year of transformation for us! We’ve moved to a new website, added thirteen new authors to our fold, and initiated an internal mailing list for core authors to stay in touch.

We also have several exciting plans for the future, including monetizing to fund our authors, putting out extra content, and starting a print edition with compiled articles.

In the short term, we’ll be putting out a poem by Phillip Shirvington every Tuesday of January, and debut some new authors like lawyer-environmentalist Pam Lazos, bee researcher…

Adrian Raine is a renowned criminologist. He teaches psychology in the University of Pennsylvania and has written four books, all on abnormal psychology and crime. Raine has studied criminals extensively and taught courses on them, and routinely tells students to feign sleep for their own safety if they ever have an intruder.

He also tells another story:

In the summer of 1989, he took a trip to Bodrum, in Turkey. It had been a long day of travel, and it didn’t take long for him to fall sound asleep. …

Change is afoot, and we wanted to let you all know.

Social Media

Good news first: we’re glad to welcome a new member to the Snipette editorial team. Trisha Sam is joining our publication as a Social Media Manager.

This is part of some efforts we’ve been making in order to try and reach a wider audience and increase our social media presence. We hope to be more interactive and have some wonderful conversations on that front — do feel free to join in and get us started! 💬

Trisha has made it possible for us to begin Instagram, so Instagrammers can follow us @snipettemag.

Don’t forget, we’re also available via Facebook, Twitter, email, RSS feeds, and the Fediverse! For full details, click here.

Editorial and Authors

The second change: Manasa has decided to take a step back from writing for a while, due to increasing workload at school, and will be taking on a more back-room-esque position at Snipette.

She’ll be taking on the Writers’ Programme and recruiting more than before, while Badri takes over as backup author.

Meanwhile…

Have you ever had a cold? I certainly have. In fact, I have one right now, even though you (obviously) can’t tell.

I’ve had the common cold a lot: I have what seems like a particularly gullible respiratory system, and my immunity system is in turns both lacking and strangely overprotective. I have it so much, my mother likes to joke that I get it only twice a year, but that it stays for six months each time.

So I think I’m somewhat qualified to say that common cold and I have a special relationship. I even kind of like…