Aditya Rao had always been the kind of man who hit his marks. By thirty‑three he’d stitched together an enviable resume: IIT gold medal, Stanford MBA, fast‑tracked director at a global tech firm, and a condo perched on the thirty‑eighth floor of Mumbai’s newest glass tower. The newspapers called him a wunderkind. His mother framed the clippings. Recruiters filled his inbox with seven‑figure offers. Most evenings he arrived home after midnight, tie loosened, brain buzzing, fingers still tapping phantom keys. He would step onto the balcony, …
The Woman Who Couldn’t Leave
The first time Mira thought about leaving Raj, she was washing spinach. The leaves were muddy, stubborn. She scrubbed each one as if dirt could be reasoned with. Raj was asleep in the other room, snoring softly with the TV still murmuring—one of those historical docuseries he insisted on watching but never finished. She wasn’t angry. Not really. Not the kind of fight where you slam doors or throw pans. It was quieter than that. Like the kind of silence you find in attics. Still, a little stale. A place where time has settled like dust on old …
The Helping Hand That Held Me Down
Aria spotted the old man from halfway down the block. White kurta, too-thin legs, translucent skin that looked like creased paper. He stood at the foot of the stairs outside the ration shop, gripping a plastic bag so orange it looked radioactive. She slowed down. He didn’t ask for help. Just stood there, swaying slightly, like someone caught between decision and defeat. The bag was too heavy. That much was clear. Aria had two choices. Keep walking like she didn’t see him—or stop and carry someone else’s weight for a while. She …
Take Your Power Back Before You Start To Believe You Never Had Any
Losing power doesn’t feel like a collapse. It feels like compromise. You don’t notice it at first. You skip the morning walk once, then twice. You downplay what you want. You swallow your opinion to keep the peace. You call it “adjusting.” Eventually, you start forgetting what it felt like to drive your own life. You move, but you’re not the one steering. I’ve done it. Smiled through discomfort. Said yes out of habit. Avoided decisions so I wouldn’t have to be the one responsible if they went sideways. It felt smart at the time—easier …
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Stop Climbing. The Ladder’s a Lie.
You hit the goal. It lands. Kind of. There’s that brief flicker of satisfaction—like a match flaring up in a windstorm. And then, almost on cue, the itch returns. You think about the next thing. The better version. The upgrade. Whatever it is you’re supposed to be wanting now. Nobody warns you how fast a win can rot. Not because it’s not real—but because it was never built to hold your worth. At best, it’s a sugar hit. At worst, it’s proof that your idea of “enough” is broken. They call it drive. Hustle. Vision. Give it a slick name and …
Loneliness Isn’t the Enemy. It’s the Mirror I Keep Avoiding.
There are days when silence feels sharp. Not peaceful or meditative. Sharp. The kind that makes time drag. Nothing’s wrong, technically—no arguments, no rejections, no visible wounds. But something gnaws. It’s not sadness. Not boredom. Something colder. Loneliness. That word makes people shift in their seats. It’s wrapped in shame. It smells of failure, like something’s missing and everyone else has it figured out. But no one really talks about what it actually feels like: that restless ache to be seen, to belong, to fill some invisible …
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The Quietest Breakup: When You Stop Choosing Yourself
There’s a particular kind of loneliness that comes from staying in a relationship where you no longer feel seen. It’s not the dramatic kind—the kind with slamming doors or tear-streaked ultimatums. It’s quieter. It creeps in through the spaces between conversations, settles into the way your body tenses at their touch, lingers in the words you don’t say. And still, you stay. Not because you’re happy. Not because you don’t know better. But because the unknown feels worse. Because there’s nothing bad enough to justify leaving, no …
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Maturing on the Trails
Trekking condenses life into fast, brutal lessons. You start out feeling invincible, moving with purpose. Then the altitude steals your breath, the cold seeps into your bones, and suddenly, every step feels like an argument with gravity. You rethink everything—your decisions, your gear, your life choices. For a long time, I thought suffering was proof of effort. If my legs weren’t shaking, if I wasn’t staggering into camp half-broken, had I even trekked? I wore exhaustion like a badge of honor, convinced that the harder it was, the more it …