Let me say it once and for all, mostly because you probably haven’t heard it enough times: you are permitted to live. You were terrified of the thought of a gap year, I have taken notice since our last conversation. You were petrified by your very own choice to consciously take a career break while…

Naush’s knees finally gave out. He crumbled onto the ground, shattered like a dusty porcelain doll accidentally swept off the shelf. As he feebly wheezed through his congested nose, a teeny tiny speck of dust entered his blurry sight. It did a little twirl in the air, as if to say ‘Hello’ with a wave,…

Rage is not just a punch that ravages someone else’s face. Rage is not blazing fire, not a splash of red, not a guttural yell, and certainly not a violent smash. Rage is not a transient flash. It is a muted vibration spreading from all of your organs that threatens to disquiet the room if…

He thinks he’s never seen her cry before. Well, that’s not quite a powerful statement. He doesn’t really see her in general. It’s not like they ‘hang out’ all the time, that he’s seen her plenty but just never the moment when she drops a tear. The sample size of instances where they find themselves…

“You dream in a language that I can’t understand. It’s like there’s this whole place inside of you where I can’t go.” Celine Song « Past Lives (2023) » You’ve been dreaming in a foreign land I’ve never been, Fumbling with words like I’ve never seen. Lying at the wake, I’m holding your back, But I could…

Hey, Not many things can withstand the rigorous inquiry of perceptive eyes. Things are often prettier when you can’t see them. The shutter always clicks much earlier before you can react. A snapshot of you, a recorded impression, now sits somewhere on the roll. You go on with your life, not knowing what is taken,…

As their eyes locked, Naush hoped he had said something different. Something like: “Let’s get our stories aligned. I want us to have a history comprised of train tickets purchased out of good bad decisions, condom packages tossed passionately over but never in the bin, and unfinished rolls of Kodak films neither had the patience…

It was a rather childish game they used to play. “Boorish stuff,” one of them would’ve hypocritically proclaimed should they lose. As if to flaunt their youthfulness, they would sprint down (more like flying off) flights of stairs snaking in the tropical greenery that carpeted the hilly Hong Kong Island. The lush foliage would morph…

A steady tremolo (tr) disquieted the room, rippling out from their touched skin onto the bed, then onto the floor. An ambient mezzo piano (mp) commanded that Naush hold his breath, forcibly containing all that heaving by tightening his chest. Barely did he have space to wiggle at ease; their bodies and limbs were interlaced,…

She probably took three breaths, Vic thought. That’d be what Vic would’ve done. Take three long, deep breaths so the air enters the lungs, the bloodstream, and then the brain. Serena told him that it would clear his thoughts for better decision-making. So she probably did it too before she tore apart her report card…