Posts

The Curse of Hyper Independence

Image
  The other day, a friend called me to ask for the medical reimbursement form pdf. I asked if everything was okay, almost as a reflex, and she replied just as casually, “Yeah, I just had to get a breast ultrasound done.” There are sentences that quietly rearrange something inside you. That was one of them. My heart sank in a way I didn’t immediately show. “Everything is okay, right?” I asked, trying to keep my voice steady. She reassured me...her gynecologist only wanted to rule things out, nothing serious. Relief came, but it didn’t settle fully. I found myself asking when she went, why she didn’t tell me. I would have gone with her. She said she had gone earlier that day. Alone. And that stayed with me. The hospital is far...at one end of the city, while we live nowhere near even its edges. I kept thinking about that journey. Not just the physical distance, but the mental one. The quiet waiting. The what-ifs. The possibility, however small, of something being wrong. I couldn’t he...

After the After

Image
This one is about loss, grief, and what it quietly teaches you. I lost my nani around four months ago, the first close and deeply personal loss I have ever experienced. People often say that no amount of preparedness can make loss easier. In my case, there wasn’t even the illusion of preparation. One day everything was fine and flourishing, and the next day it just… wasn’t. Grief knocked on my door absolutely unannounced. Perhaps it came when I was already at my lowest, silently grieving and fighting battles I had already lost count of. Loss has a strange way of choosing its moments… rarely when you are ready, almost always when you are already tired. But even before this grief could fully reach me, something else was waiting to surprise me. For her cremation and the prayer meet, I saw people arrive from different places, friends, acquaintances, and colleagues of my mother, my aunts, and even my father. People who had known her through fragments of life, through occasional visits or co...

LOSE SOME, WIN MOST?

I had always heard that when you lose weight, the world treats you differently… suddenly you are seen, you exist, as if your body had finally earned the right to occupy space. I thought it was exaggerated - one of those dramatic before–after narratives people love telling. Lose weight and the world rearranges itself around you. Doors open easier. Smiles arrive faster. Conversations linger longer. I never believed it. Until it happened to me. I have always been overweight. An outlier by every social metric - in school classrooms, college corridors, group photographs where everyone else fit neatly into what beauty was supposed to look like. I was never the stereotypically beautiful structure. Neither slim nor tall. Not the aesthetic society rewards with effortless validation. Just visibly different. So I did what many of us do when we are told, silently and repeatedly, that we are “too much” in the wrong ways - I compensated. I ensured I was good at everything else - Anchoring. Dancing. ...

The Dichotomy of "Table for One, Please!"

Image
There is something strangely heavy about the sentence - Table for one, please! It sounds simple, almost ordinary, yet each time I walk into a restaurant or a bar and speak those words, it feels like revealing something small and personal about myself to a stranger. A gentle confession disguised as a request. Each time, I notice it - that almost imperceptible pause, the flicker of surprise crossing their face, the brief rearrangement of expression that hovers somewhere between curiosity and concern, sometimes something that resembles sympathy. It is as if the person standing across wonders - Alone? No friends, no partner, no family, no laughter waiting to fill the space? The question is never spoken, yet it settles in the space between us and lingers like an unfinished sentence. Perhaps they are accustomed to tables crowded with conversation : friends leaning toward each other mid-story, couples lost in soft exchanges, families negotiating menus and memories, laughter spilling loudly en...

The Letter Z

Image
Zesty Always have a zest for life. Once you are zesty, only then you will be able to enjoy your each day with full of energy and get most out of what life has to offer. We must appreciate what comes our way and enjoy it to the fullest. Zesty is simply a lively quality that increases enjoyment, excitement and energy for whatever you do. Living life with a positive outlook and never losing your charm is one of the most beautiful ways to be happy.  But you also have to be serious about stuff alongwith being zesty. There must be a perfect balance between these two.  #26DaysOfLettering #Day26 #LetterZ

The Letter Y

Image
Young This personality trait must be adapted by all of us. Being young at heart is what we don't follow at all. That energy and madness of doing something (be it creative, new or normal) shall always be there. Rather than fearing the outcomes or aftermaths, one must be excited to try new things and have a thirst for knowledge. It's important to be open to new experiences and engage in activities that bring you joy as this is what keeps you young at heart.   Also, being young at heart has nothing to do with being silly and foolish. We must not become absurd at any given time.  #26DaysOfLettering #Day25 #LetterY

The Letter X

Image
Xenodochial Someone who is friendly to strangers is called a xenodochial. In today's era of technology, we are, most of the times, stuck to our mobile phones, laptop etc. We have only a little idea of who is travelling along with us, who all exactly live in our neighbourhood and other such stuff. Make it a habit that whenever you are travelling or are sitting somewhere, instead of getting indulged in the electronic gadgets try to talk to the people around you.   While trying to be a xenodochial, always know the fine line between being friendly and over friendly.  #26DaysOfLettering #Day24 #LetterX