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.