Nostalgia Engulfed...

Here is a bouquet of little pick-me-ups to make you feel better when you're having a bad day. Seeing how this year has been a gold mine in that regard, I'd consider starring this one. Spending hours in a day reading long, painfully typed text messages from your friend who's giving you a play by play, processed, eight year old friendly version of that horror show that is deeply intriguing but you're too scared to watch, even if it makes sleeping more difficult than it already is Dreaming about familiar places - a bench on the school playground, a milestone on the highway, nani ghar in summers, that nook in your old room that you used to hide in under the bed with a book and a torch after it was dark Watching Wake Up Sid with your best friend, after having a long, excruciating week, stuffing your face with momos, following it up with good wine, forgetting everything you've been trying to forget and passing out happy in the middle of the movie Smoke breaks in between w...

He nudged her to bring her out of her reverie. She was lost again, zoned out, overthinking. "Penny for  your thoughts? Or do you want it to be punny?" She laughed in that way she only laughed with him and broke out of her spell. It was easy being around him, effortless. It didn't matter what she had to do to be near him or how many intolerable yet genius puns she had to endure to hear him giggle at his own damn jokes. Maybe that's exactly why she couldn't describe what about him made her happy. She had been asked that often, a lot, really. And she couldn't figure out how anybody who knew him even the tiniest bit couldn't understand it. It felt natural for her to gravitate towards him because he was it. Not in the epic love story and grand gestures way but just the I-can-just-be-myself-around-you-and-you-put-me-at-ease way. She was wound up and every year of her life and every incident that came along with it had built her up a nice, cosy layered wall tha...

She opened her eyes and peeked at the light seeping in through the curtains. The light didn't wake her, her thoughts did. She tried to get up, but couldn't, her legs seemed incapable of moving. It was cold and it made her want to curl up inside her blanket and never wake up. She glanced at her Kindle, lying two feet away from her. She thought of the book that she'd been dying to read a month ago. And then she thought about how she hadn't been able to read in days. She tried to sit up and look at the sun - absorb some of its magnificent energy to be able to get on with her day. She thought about what lay ahead of her for the day. Meetings, unnecessary stress, disappointment and waiting - a whole lot of waiting for someone who couldn't care less. She closed her eyes to push her thoughts away and before she knew it, she was asleep again. She woke up in the middle of the day to realise she's missed work, work calls and more contact from people who didn't matt...