Sai Kalpana

This year, I am hoisting a silver flag—celebrating 25 years of life.  Yep, a silver jubilee.  Hold on, Birthday? Celebration? Party? Treat? Honestly, I haven’t really celebrated my birthday since grade 6. One big reason? People only seem to care on that one day—they send texts, gifts, cakes, pour love and money into it and I never felt peace or real happiness from it. It all felt so temporary. So over time, my birthday became a normal day, like every other day. Secondly, my parents never brought me up with grand gestures. Since childhood, I knew I was raised with reality. I grew up in a nuclear family: my father’s parents died before I was born, and I barely remember my maternal grandfather, as I was just 2 to 4 years old. I am close with my maternal grandma. Most of my childhood vacations were with her, and I love spending time with her. She takes care of me so well. I feel safe and comfortable with her. Her love languages on birthdays or even on normal days were making ...

There are some love stories that don’t last forever — not because they weren’t strong enough, but because they were meant to exist in moments rather than on a timeline. I’m a rom-com movieholic who also loves funny family movies. Recently, I found myself swept away by two stories that couldn’t be more different in setting, language, or structure yet both left a similar ache in my heart. One is a poetic Telugu film called “8 Vasanthalu” , and the other, a beautiful film, “The Oxford Year”  . What connected them for me was this simple yet powerful truth: not all love needs to be loud to be real. In 8 Vasanthalu , love is presence. It’s the kind of love that waits silently in the background, showing up through years and seasons, never asking for anything in return. The man in her life doesn’t profess undying love or fight to win her over. He just stays. Through every change, every heartbreak, every chapter of her life, he’s there. Not holding her, but never letting go either. And so...

My very first flight journey began in September 2024 with high hopes, excitement, and a few unexpected surprises. I had originally booked a Lufthansa flight from Bangalore to Munich and then to Manchester. What I didn’t know was that even for a short 55-minute layover in Munich, I needed a transit visa. I only discovered this during check-in at Bangalore airport when the airline staff told me. My heart sank—I couldn’t board the flight, couldn’t get a refund because it wasn’t a premium ticket with refund feature, and ended up losing nearly £680. Disappointed and stressed, I returned home. Two weeks later, on September 23rd, I booked again with IndiGo and Turkish Airlines, flying from Coimbatore to Delhi to Istanbul and finally to Manchester. So, it's three flights, but thankfully it was a connecting ticket, so I didn’t need to worry about my 60 kg of baggage at each stop. Coimbatore to Delhi:  This part of the journey was smooth and even exciting. The landing was especially great, a...