- A December for those whose holidays look differentPhoto by Anita Austvika on UnsplashFor most of my adult life, Christmas hasn’t really been about Christmas. It’s been about paid time off.Back in India, this was the one time of year when taking time off felt uncomplicated. Offices slowed down, emails went unanswered, and my manager never questioned a long break. Christmas meant I could travel guilt-free, stretch a holiday right up to the New Year, and come back pretending I had rested properly.I’m not particularly religious, so the day itself was simple — apple pie with family, […]
- Rituals Don’t Have to Look the Same to Mean the SameAuthor in Potsdam on DiwaliI’ve started to think there’s no single right way to celebrate a festival — not anymore. The world has changed, our lives have changed, and honestly, most of us don’t have the time or space for 17 trays of sweets or aunts who ask when we’re having kids. Traditions evolve, they have to.What once meant gathering an entire clan now often means lighting a few diyas between Zoom meetings. And that’s okay. Culture isn’t something we preserve in a museum; it’s something we […]
- A fortnight of travel left me craving home.Photo by Mesut Kaya on UnsplashOpen Instagram right now and I guarantee you’ll find at least one person who seems to be permanently on vacation. They’re either sipping Aperol on a balcony in Rome, hiking through Patagonia, or “working remotely” from a beach in Bali. They look flawless, sun-kissed, and completely unbothered. Their captions read like manifestos about freedom and living the dream.And for years, I believed them. Who wouldn’t want that life? I’d sit in my Bangalore apartment, scrolling, wondering why I wasn’t brave enough to pack […]
- Why today’s horror movies are more about box office than originality.Photo by Edilson Borges on UnsplashI walked into The Conjuring: Last Rites with the excitement of someone who has loved horror for years. I was ready for chills, for atmosphere, for the final case of Ed and Lorraine Warren to leave me unsettled in the best way. What I got instead felt less like an ending and more like an advertisement for how “good families” operate. Instead of closure, the film seemed preoccupied with showing the audience that the franchise would continue through […]
- From Instagram reels to €6 mugs, matcha is everywherePhoto by Monika Grabkowska on UnsplashEvery Sunday I head to a café in Berlin for my writing workshop. And every Sunday, I’m surrounded by frothy mugs of matcha — not just plain old matcha lattes, but strawberry matcha, coconut matcha, vanilla matcha. Half the café looks like a pastel Pinterest board. Meanwhile, I’m clutching my boring cappuccino, feeling like the odd one out at a very stylish cult meeting.I’ve tried to like it. Really. I thought maybe it would taste like green tea’s cooler, creamier cousin. Instead, my […]
- The rise of fashion uniformity from city streets to online closets.Photo by Carlos Torres on UnsplashLast weekend, I set out for my usual summer walk through one of Berlin’s parks, the perfect place to enjoy the fleeting sunshine, a pistachio gelato and pretend winter is just a bad dream. As I strolled along, I couldn’t help but notice something oddly familiar about everyone’s outfit. It was like a city-wide dress code had been quietly agreed upon overnight.There was the woman lounging on a picnic blanket, sporting a loose white linen shirt tucked into beige […]
- Everyone’s just busy or worse, polite.Photo by Josef Kali on UnsplashI’ve had entire conversations that lasted under 15 minutes and yet stayed with me longer than people I’ve known for years.A Greek auntie in a mountain village who served me ouzo, asked nothing about my job, and everything else about my life.A Tamil Nadu auto driver who talked to me about rain, regret, and Rajinikanth in the same breath.A woman I sat next to on a train from Berlin who showed me pictures of her grandkids and how her post retirement activity was being a […]
- Remember the times when boredom was a good thing?Photo by Tony Tran on UnsplashI used to lie on the floor and stare at the ceiling. For hours.Sometimes I’d talk to myself. Sometimes I’d rearrange storylines from the latest Archie comic in my head. Other times I’d just kick my legs in the air and wonder if ants knew where they were going.That, my friends, was boredom. Pure, glorious, analog boredom.And I miss it.The Lost Art of Staring Into NothingBoredom used to be a default state — a gap between moments, not a problem that needed to be solved.I remember falling asleep […]
Emerald Ink 