Familiar Air

It’s 02:32 am on Jan 25th, 2026, and I’m wide awake because I was having a heartful, nostalgic, wholesome, and deep conversation with my friend and flatmate, Monisha. I think we were talking non-stop for more than four hours.

Moments like this really make me happy and thrive. She must have mentioned at least ten names of her friends—people I’ve never met—but I now know and carry a little bit of them with me, which is such a nice and surreal feeling.

It’s only been five months of knowing her, but I think she is going to be in my life forever. I hope I ain’t jinxing it by thinking it aloud.

It is hard to think about having to say goodbye to this flat. To these people (because I quit my job and am leaving Chennai). But I do believe I’d re-visit a lot.

Chennai is home. 1B-602 is home. Just like how 107, Stanza Living Brunswick House was back in Coimbatore.

You know what the best part about moving a lot is? It’s having places to come back to. Having people to welcome you back with rib-crushing hugs. For your lungs to breathe in familiar air again. For your legs to have their own brains because they know where to take you. For the cats and dogs to run back to you because they remember you from that one time you fed them. To get those knowing nods from the locals.

Leaving is scary because it’s a step towards uncertainty, but leaving means having yet another home with its porch light left on for you to return.

A year from now, a wave of nostalgia would hit me hard—drowning me with sweet memories—and I know I would happily let that tide pull me in.