Pens and Pages

It was a cold December of 2019 and I had just arrived in Delhi for some work-related meeting from Bangalore.  Having hopped a lot of cities in life for work, I was a newbie in Bangalore too, having shifted there just a couple of months back. My nomadic heart belonged to absolutely no city in particular. Any person who lived for two years in Gurgaon would feel like Delhi was home for them when they'd arrive from the Southern Capital of India, but for me, having lived in Gurgaon but not really roamed a lot, Delhi was still as alien as Bangalore - another new place where I was completely alone despite the crowds all around. I had arrived in the late evening, having boarded the flight after work-hours at around 7pm. Delhi air was chillier and foggier than I had thought, and I thanked my charts for having picked a long pink sweater to wear that evening on top of my regular white t-shirt and a pair of jeans. I wrapped my hands around myself as much as I could to avoid feeling so cold. I ...

I just had a beautiful body massage in my Bangalore home booked via Urban Clap and it brought back memories of a dirty yet thoughtful experience I had in 2019. I should have written this in 2019 but I was only a girl then, afraid what would people say when they read it. These days, I guess I have stopped giving a damn (well, almost).  I did talk about it with a few acquaintances (because I have no friends) and kind of worried I'd come across as naïve (read: stupid). But it is what it is. So it was a cold December of 2019 and I had just arrived in Delhi then for some work-related meeting. Our travel desk booked me a hotel near the airport because the preferred hotels near Gurgaon (where my office was) were unavailable. I was supposed to go attend a friend's wedding near Ghaziabad that night but a recent news of rape in the outskirts of NCR ticked me off. I decided to spend the rest of the evening in the hotel itself.  In the evening I decided to just walk around, exploring the ...