31 December 1999 The house was awake that night. The television had been running since dinner, switching between Bollywood songs, celebrity interviews and the New Year countdown. Outside, the neighbourhood was coming alive with crackers, while I sat cross-legged, completely lost in the television. Tonight I was wearing my favourite Shah Rukh Khan T-shirt, the …
Book Review: Love at First Byte
Love at First Byte by Divya Ramaswamy will definitely take you through a phase of life. As soon as I started reading the book, I was reminded of my own early working days in the corporate world. Those first few days of stepping into a new workplace, meeting new people, learning to navigate an unfamiliar …
The Hour of Happiness
Shreya was already regretting the precious Sunday she had sacrificed to attend her cousin's wedding reception. Cousin was perhaps a generous word; she had met him only a handful of times and knew very little about him. Still, here she was, dressed in an outfit she had spent far too long choosing, sitting at a …
Home: The Quiet Shelter of Love
I was born into a nuclear family where life was neither extravagant nor dramatic, yet it carried a quiet sense of stability that I only truly appreciate now as an adult. My mother managed everything with remarkable ease — two children, household responsibilities, social obligations, guests appearing unannounced, school schedules, illnesses, celebrations — all without …
The Overbridge
Pic credit: Anirban Bagui “Taratari hato, Reema (Walk faster, Reema). The 11:20 local won’t wait for you.” Baba didn’t look back. He never did. Missing a train was almost a moral failure in the Banerjee household. I followed him toward Konnagar station. The overbridge rose ahead- tall, grey, and mostly ignored. Konnagar is a small …
The Unexpected Twists That Shaped My 2025
Every year carries its own surprises, but 2025 gave me two plot twists I never saw coming. Each one nudged me gently, yet powerfully, into a new version of myself. They were disguised as new opportunities and endless possibilities that I didn’t fully understand at first. But as the year draws to an end, reflection …
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Book Discussion: Before the Coffee Gets Cold — A Tender Brew of Time, Regret, and Hope
When I started reading Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s Before the Coffee Gets Cold, the element of magical realism kept me hooked. I wanted to understand its significance—its origin, its purpose, the whys and the hows behind it. But once I finished reading, I did not get direct answers to my curiosity. Instead, it gently revealed what that …
Netflix Find: Old Money- The Unspoken Chemistry that Stayed With Me.
I recently watched a Turkish Drama series, Old Money, on Netflix, and I can’t stop thinking about it. On the surface, the story explores the clash between the generational wealth (old money) and the newly emerged rich (new money). At its heart, though, lies a love story between two people from opposite sides of the …
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The Five-Year Wish
Shantivan was a place where stories seemed to grow on trees, quite literally like the leaves on the ancient banyan tree in the town square. The town, famous for its “Festival of Stories”, attracted book lovers, dreamers, and wanderers who found themselves lost in its charm. A vibrant market thrived at the heart of the …
The Storm Within
Noor was walking through the storm, or was she the storm? The sky was getting darker, and the wind picked up pace, howling like a hungry monster. It was April, and Rishra, a small town in West Bengal, was not new to these fierce storms, locally called Kal Boishakhi. Noor didn’t know how far she …
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