Sanjana Thakur’s short story Aishwarya Rai, set in Mumbai, won the Commonwealth Short Story Prize 2024 organised by the Commonwealth Foundation in late June. Her story beat over 7,000 entries to win the >> 5,000 prize. It follows a moment in the life of 23-year-old Avni, who works in an ad agency. She yearns for an ideal mother, living alone in the city and sharing a complicated relationship with her mother back home. To fill this gap, she takes the help of a shelter that engages in “reverse adoption”, a process through which children can adopt mothers.