src: pixabay Hey you, This may have been the quickest year we’ve had yet. It feels like only yesterday when I packed a year’s worth of life into five cartons and moved to a new city. It’s hard to believe that was twelve months ago. Moving places is always a romantic affair, don’t you think? The idea of leaving something behind and exploring something anew. I’m not so sure what I’ve left behind. Maybe the crowd and the frenzy that came with it. Maybe even a bit of loneliness and hurt from my circle back there. But I do know what I’ve gained. A sense of calm. It’s only when the water ..read more

Src: pixabay Everything is blurry. There's a bright point of light in front of me. I stare at it blankly for a while, unable to form a coherent thought. There are drops of water sprinkled on my face, but I don't question it. It doesn't seem odd. Nothing seems odd, not even the dark blobs popping into my view, blocking the harsh rays of light. Blobs that look like heads. Like faces. I feel a tinge of curiosity building in my mind, but I'm still unable to frame it into a question. And then I see her. A face wrought with worry and terrible fear. All barriers inside my head break loose ..read more

  Hey you, It’s been almost a year since we moved away from home. Almost a year since I put up those red curtains for my balcony doors. That was all the decoration I could manage for my room, except for the aloe vera sulking at me from my table. I know I forget about its existence most of the time, but it pretty much takes care of itself. That was why I agreed to bring it over in the first place, mom was adamant. I figured that my balcony would be my escape from routine and monotony, like my terrace used to be back home. I pictured myself leaning on the railing with a warm cup of tea ..read more

Source: pixabay.com Vemödalen.  The fear that everything has already been done.  When I first came across this word I nodded it off, not giving it a second thought. Today it tails every thought in my mind, pulling back each one that wishes to break through and live a life of its own. It crushes them half-baked before I can put a sense to them, before I can give them space to grow into themselves. It mocks every feeble effort of theirs to be unique, to simply be their own self. It sniggers enough to deafen the little voice in them, wishing meekly to be heard. Words.  ..read more

  src: nicepng On a cold night, 6000 ft above the sea, our flashlights danced around in our tent. My numb fingers fumbled with the sleeping bag, craving its promised warmth. My tent-mate’s uneven breathing alternated with my own. For a moment her headlamp flashed on my face. I winced. “Why are we doing this again?” she asks. I laugh, thinking of the answer that mankind has been giving for ages. Because we can. We were scaling up a 12000 ft peak for the hell of it. But of course, there was more to it than that. Or so I hoped as I tried to stop my teeth from chattering. It was da ..read more

src: favpng.com "So?"  I ask him, feigning impatience. Inside me is a racing heart ready to burst at any moment. I wonder if it's my excitement or just the fear of getting caught by the PT teacher. "You know what I'm going to say." he says. I almost roll my eyes.  "Are you going to say something or not?"  He shuffles his feet awkwardly, unsure what to do in this situation. We're at the corner of the playground, trying to be discreet in the middle of noise and hustle.  "Okay." he says, breaking into a grin. "I love you." I grin back at him, matching his level of a ..read more

src: freeimagesandillustrations It had been too long since the indoors took over. There was no point in waiting anymore, it being well established that the normal we had known wouldn't be restored for quite some time. And so, coupled with the inefficient handling of semester finals and hurried online evaluations came the inadequate goodbyes of my final year.  But here I was secretly thrilled for not having to attend courtesy farewell parties. Sitting through video calls wouldn't be half as bad now, would it? I was wrong. What was meant to be a time to reminisce over the good ti ..read more

Source: hiclipart Do you ever feel stuck in time? On a routine that goes on in a loop with no change whatsoever? You have these things you want to do but you put them off for later. You don't really do anything to get there at present. Or maybe you do and the routine is a part of it. Either way, you're waiting. Waiting to get there. Somewhere.  Is it weird to find comfort in a routine only because of the ability to break it? How would you appreciate the weekend if you weren't working 5 days a week?  I longed for a break to figure things out. To maybe sit and mull over t ..read more

src: dreamstine It's a brand new day with no agenda. Chores, reading, chores, a movie, and more chores. Not that there are that many of them, but they tend to be the highlight of an otherwise sedentary lifestyle. I browse the internet and find this rotating cube at the bottom of news websites. Flashing numbers. Numbers that represent confirmed cases and deaths. But mere numbers all the same. 10 million. 15 million...a sigh of despair. Almost forced at this point.  Abstraction. That is how we deal with others' suffering. Imagine if we were to feel the pain of every tragedy we ..read more

src: vecteezy Dear Social Media, I got to know about you at a pretty young age. I'd sit next to my sister and read her chats in Yahoo Messenger. It was entertaining even though I didn't always understand her conversations. I was ten when she made an account for me on Orkut. I don't remember if I was particularly excited about it; none of my friends really knew about Orkut then. But I would still log into my account and embellish my profile occasionally.  Of course, my scrapbook (the then-inbox), friend-requests, and testimonials were monitored by my sister. Which was fair ..read more