Footprints I Could Not Keep

Footprints I Could Not Keep is a collection of thirty-three witness stories drawn from journeys across India - through cremation grounds, abandoned hospital wings, silent classrooms, flooded villages, and forgotten homes.Each story begins in a moment that might otherwise have passed unnoticed: a doormat stitched from a worn sweater, a name fading from a classroom slate, a pair of shoes preserved beside an unclaimed body, a nurse who refused to let the dead remain in darkness.What began as fragments - diary notes, overheard silences, unfinished gestures - unfolds into a body of work that reflects on dignity, abandonment, memory, and the fragile ethics of care.These stories do not seek resolution.They do not offer redemption easily.They attend instead to what remains - after systems withdraw, and voices fall silent.Moving through institutions, homes, landscapes, and ritual spaces, the collection returns to a quiet, enduring question:Who stays behind when everyone else has left?Written with restraint and emotional precision, Footprints I Could Not Keep is not a record of tragedy, but a testament to the quiet humanity that persists beyond it.