12.02.2026

This is my feeble attempt at a travel journal… to keep track of all the beauty I saw with this newfound freedom that I am getting.

This was my first time seeing the cologne cathedral and the Rhine river. This spot where I took the photo from is my most favorite spot in the whole city. It gives a certain sense of peace and tranquility and it amazes me because its right in the middle of the busiest part of Cologne. The river is dark and it flows so fast that I feel a sense of insignificance…the way you feel when you realize the vastness of the universe.

This was the Promenade in Münster. It was a good city.. especially if you liked to cycle a lot.

Monschau was beautiful. The kind of town that fairytales are based on. Sheep in farms just passing time..cozy little cafes and mysterious cathedrals. This photo made me feel I was frozen in time…like someone stood on that spot years ago and drew a picture. Maybe he thought it will change over the years..but the landscape is still what it was. Like somehow it was preserved.

Haa..yes this is what I saw when I woke up one day and looked out the window. Being in an apartment with quite a lot of floors is indeed a blesssing.

Yea..the three country point or formerly the four country point, indicating a neutral zone called the Neutral Moresnet.

The Köln triangle was much better than I thought it would be. It was good to see the city lights in all its glory. Again, humbling.

Malaysia

So I went on my first international trip to Malaysia. Now you must think I was excited about it. I wasn’t particularly interested because the people you share a journey with are as important as the destination. And the people I would eventually share it with were my mom’s colleagues, whom I didn’t know much. But yeah, due to my mom’s insistence that she would only go if I accompanied her, I joined her. So we went as part of a package tour, and there were 30 people in it. And they were all amazing, with different kinds of lives and different kinds of stories. As I got to know them over the days, I was happy with my decision to visit this place. It wasn’t just Malaysia I took away; it was the experiences and love of all those 30 people.

Now, on to Malaysia. During my time in Delhi, I would notice the big tourist buses full of foreign tourists and think about how they all saw the polished version of India. The version of India that’s handed out to them. Don’t get me wrong, I am someone who believes that India’s luxury and modernity define it as much as its poverty and superstitions. But you also need to see its villages, travel by train and auto rickshaw, talk to people, ask for directions, and do all those things you would do if you were travelling in your own country. So the tour I went to left me disappointed.

We were foreigners on the bus in Malaysia. We saw the polished version of Kuala Lumpur City, a beautiful testament to human progress. In all their glory, the twin towers signify one of Malaysia’s primary sources of income, petroleum. The Saloma bridge stands across the River of Life, so aptly named. The religious unanimity for such a multicultural group was a shock to me as an Indian, who wanted to dive deep into its history and find the cracks.
I want to go back there. Not as part of any tour package, but I want to see what happens outside Kuala Lumpur. I want to know if all of Malaysia is as polished as its capital, as the view they want to show the rest of the world. It’s not about finding faults; it’s about knowing a place I’ve visited beyond the surface and understanding its current situation from its history.

Foreigner

Here I am
In the land I always dreamed of
Feeling the taste of freedom
I have never had in my own home
And yet it feels so strange
so fake and so cold
The world around me is now
foreign to me
Yet I am the one who is the alien
Is this how it feels
To never go home again
Yearning a warmth
That is gone from this world
How will I ever feel like me again
Where will I find the missing pieces?
Why is my youth so clouded
by the sadness that grows
inside me everyday?

A Translation

You woke me up

from the darkness that consumed me

and gave me colors to fill

You gave me a sky

to spread my wings

And a nest

inside your heart

When a nightingale sings

When the lullaby of the stream fades

When time moves

I have strung my heart to yours

And I seek shelter in you

No promise of heaven can

seperate our hearts

My heaven is when I melt into you

My truth is you.

11 Dec 2024

My father passed away more than a year back. How do you bounce back from that? From the most favorite person of your life passing away? The most important one, the one you looked up to, the one you wanted to prove yourself to? What purpose do you have left in your life? How do you go from one day to another? How do you go to your house and stare at the rooms and always feel like waiting for someone who is never going to show up? How do you wash the old bike again and again making it spotless only to leave it in the garage with no one to look after it? What do you tell the cat who wont eat anything unless it sees the old hands that fed it? How do you go through their stuff , see the bits and pieces that they left behind of themselves, the newspaper clippings, the magazines, the diaries ? How do you sleep in that house that always feels haunted by the person who built it? And when those initial days are over and the rest of the world expects you to move on, how do you laugh and smile even when everything inside you feels empty?

I used to mock people who believed in the after life, people who used to say they would do anything to bring their favourite person back. But in those initial days of grief, I understood how that felt. I am not saying I did something stupid tho, just that I knew what it was like, the desperation. One moment you are at your college, planning a trip for the upcoming weekend, and in the next, you get a call to come home as soon as you can. Not knowing what happened, you call your dad to confirm , and you realise why it was your brother who called you and not your dad. From that day onwards, I started classifying everything as Before Dad Died and After Dad Died. I mean now I understand the BC and AD system. You know, Dionysius Exiguus must have loved Christ as much as I loved my dad.

I wish he was there for my graduation. I fought with him and did not go to the college he wanted me to go. I deliberately chose another path. Every time I felt like giving up, I told myself that I had to make my dad proud. Also to prove to him that I would succeed. I knew he wanted me to. I knew that was his dream. And the worst part is if I had chosen the path he asked me to, I would have graduated a year ago, successful or not, he would have been there to see me.

I know I am just babbling, but I am glad I got to write atleast this. Its been so long since I have been able to write anything about me.

3 Aug 2022

Did i really think he was the answer to my loneliness?…That this sadness inside me will go away if i had a boyfriend? Maybe i wasn’t born with this inside me….but it has been there for a long time. Instead of trying to distract myself from it I should learn to live with it. To contain it to myself and not impose it on anyone. How long will I run away from it? He is a nice guy. He likes me. He has a good future ahead. I should not be emotionally closed off to him. He deserves better than that. But I should be careful. I don’t want to drag my past into this. But….what if i am robbing him of his chance to be with someone better? Someone who isn’t so depressed and sad. ..so fake….someone who is good for him . Someone who knows how to make him happy? The risk i took is huge. I don’t think I will recover if this ends . I like him…i do….but I am too tired to do all that stuff people in love do. I am too afraid to let myself be vulnerable. To show any emotion that makes him think he has any influence over me. I know it’s not fair but i don’t want to be hurt anymore. I don’t want any more fuck ups

A WISH

Darkness envelops me

As I grasp for air

Darkness; brought on by

the loneliness the world left me

Memories of the guileless child I was

The innocence stolen from me

Never to be returned

I scream in pain

but the scream dissolves

to the darkness; not even an echo

Days when it feels too heavy

to carry on;

too difficult to even breathe

my hands reaching out from

the darkness; for solace

for just a touch; and

I am grateful for all those

touches that kept me alive

For never letting me

hit rock bottom

For being my heroes

And I wish to be

someone’s hero

To build a boat with

what those touches left me

And guide another soul

to the shore; now

unattainable to me;

and feel some solace

knowing another soul

reached there; my hand

guided them there.

Maybe one day

I’ll get there;

I’ll meet you at that shore

You and me and everything

splendid; and we’ll live

the happiest moments

life can offer us.

All that You Left

The words I kept safe

Now feels chafed

Pain makes a poet

But this pain forset

All my thoughts

have turned to noughts

The beauty I found

In you it was bound

The stars were exquisite

When they were your favorite

The flowers were beautiful

Only when you were blissful

The scorching heat was shade

Above the moments we shared

The whole world shimmered

With the secrets you whispered

Now my heart reeks

Of something too bleak

The stars don’t twinkle

In my eyes they wrinkle

The flowers too bright

In me hate they incite

The days too blinding

Keeps me wandering

To find the love

we once wove

Love can happen twice

But who else can devise

The pattern you sew

To a heart that can’t renew?

22 Oct 2021

Hmm..let’s see, 3 wishes… My number 1 would of course be for offline classes to start soon. My second one would be for me to get more than or equal to a 9 sgpa. Well, my third one would be….to go back in time to 2020.

Yesterday was awesome cause there was so much to eat and it was all so delicious 🤤.