Rishsav Sharma Chapter 1 The first snowfall had already blanketed the narrow trails leading up to the mountain ashram by the time Dr. Shreyashi Mehra arrived. Her boots crunched softly against the icy path, each step a delicate negotiation between pain and purpose. The cold wind rushed past her ears, but she barely noticed; she had long grown used to the numbness, both physical and emotional. Perched at 7,000 feet in the remote folds of the lower Himalayas, the ashram was a cluster of stone and timber structures nestled beneath ancient pine trees, smoke spiraling faintly from chimneys as if…
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Pranab Sinha Chapter 1 The compartment rattled like an old memory — uneven, persistent, and vaguely nostalgic — as the Doon Express cut its way through the northern plains, carrying Digvijoy Guha through the thick, velvet silence of early morning. He sat by the window in a second-class sleeper, wrapped in his rust-coloured shawl, watching the countryside smear into a painter’s blurred stroke. A flask of lukewarm tea trembled slightly on the steel fold-down tray beside him, untouched since Saharanpur. Above it, tucked into the mesh netting, a book of poetry by Agyeya and a leather-bound diary silently waited to…
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Neha Dikshit Chapter 1: The Loudest Goodbye Mumbai never sleeps. Even at 3 a.m., the city sounds like it’s holding its breath before exhaling into chaos. The honking doesn’t stop, nor do the distant wails of ambulances or the occasional hum of trains cutting across the sleeping city like whispers through a crowded dream. Rajeev Menon sat on the edge of his bed in his 14th-floor apartment in Andheri, hands clenched tightly, heart pounding louder than any city noise. It had been three months since Anika died, but her absence still screamed louder than anything he could record. Rajeev was…