India, Oct. 4 -- A figure in Giorgio de Chirico's 1914 painting The Enigma of Departure stands as if caught between two worlds. The viewer, who sees only his shadow, cannot guess if he is leaving or arriving. The stillness of that moment holds both possibility and fear. This image feels like the right place to enter A Stone Thrown in a Pond, a collection of essays, stories, and poems about departures and leaving edited by Ritu Menon, writer, founder-director of the publishing house, Women Unlimited, and co-founder of Kali for Women, India's first feminist press.

Leaving is something everyone does, but we don't often stop to consider how differently it unfolds for each of us. Sometimes you walk out the door and never look back. Sometimes ...