I bought Lollapalooza, Mumbai tickets the second they announced Linkin Park. Same day. Didn’t even think about it. Because how do you not show up for the music that kept you alive? I was in 10th grade when Pranav Bhaiya handed me a burned CD. Two Linkin Park albums, one just released. I had no…

There’s something simple about joy: it lives in the tools you use every day. For years, I loved the idea of espresso. I’d try to coax it out of a moka pot, force it through an Aeropress, always ending up with something that wasn’t quite right. I could get caffeine into my body, sure. But…

In psychiatry, the concept of the ‘delusion of reprieve’ describes how a condemned person might irrationally cling to the hope of a last-minute pardon. Viktor Frankl discusses this idea in Man’s Search for Meaning, extending its relevance far beyond its original context. When a relationship I valued ended abruptly, I found myself trapped in a…

For years, guilt was my unwelcome shopping companion. Coming out of my twenties without much cash, and always feeling the weight of needing to be financially responsible (even with a supportive family), I became an expert penny-pincher. That frugal mindset followed me deep into my thirties. Every non-essential purchase felt like a betrayal of some…

The chasm between loneliness and abandonment may seem narrow, but it’s an abyss of agency. In loneliness, you stand alone by circumstance. In abandonment, you’re alone by decree—a sentence passed down by those who held your heart in their hands and chose to let it shatter. To heal is to undertake a pilgrimage through the…