26 September 2026, Saturday
BENGALURU, KARNATAKA
Church Street – and its denizens – appeared to be getting younger by the year, until you recalled with a grimace that you had just turned two shy of thirty on Tuesday. You remembered words that your English teacher had last taught you in 2005 and most of all, you remembered not to speak in Hindi, for you wanted to leave this town with your skin – and some bits of your dignity – still intact.
25 September 2026, Friday
BENGALURU, KARNATAKA
It started raining on Fort Road on your way to the Kanteerava, after you had so ominously decided upon public transport as a way out of the fracas the city prides itself upon. You ran past the Visveswaraya Museum when no hope of refuge from the weather materialised, and crossed Kasturba Marg to come face-to-face with the HDFC building. Trudging in the rain, wet in your boots, you began to have a sense of homecoming only when St Joseph’s reared its head to the left; you looked twice to the right before quickly crossing the road, entering the Kanteerava by a side entrance and looking for respite from the rain. You were supposed to face the world for the first time today.
24 September 2026, Thursday
BENGALURU, KARNATAKA
You took a vow of silence upon disembarking in Bengaluru. The drizzle accompanied you from Hyderabad, and the sun seemed to have disappeared altogether. You signalled using your hands to auto-rickshaw drivers, and you mimed your way out of unpleasant conversations on buses. You saw men of your kin on the metro, but the barriers of Instagram reels appeared difficult to breach.
24 September 2026, Thursday
HYDERABAD, TELANGANA
The alarm rang with precision, and you stepped out of bed bleary-eyed yet alive: the purpose which drove your life propelled you into the shower, where you were left ruminating on whether there was any better way to begin a new season of travel than by waking up at 3:30 AM. Even the truth, which you were so hell-bent upon seeking, slept at such ungodly hours.
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