Anaya Kapoor Part 1: Return in the Rain The plane touched down in Mumbai just as the first spell of the monsoon had begun to break across the city, the tarmac glistening with that familiar shimmer of water and oil mixing into tiny rainbow puddles. Aditi pressed her forehead against the cool oval window, watching the drizzle streak across the glass, and for a moment she was sixteen again, rushing home from school in a wet uniform, her shoes squelching, her mother scolding her to change quickly before she caught a cold. Ten years had passed since she had left…
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Atrayee Mullik Part 1: Arriving in Mumbai – A City of Dreams I arrived in Mumbai on a humid summer morning, and the city immediately made its presence felt. As soon as I stepped out of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport, I was swept up by the chaos. The air was thick with the combined scent of street food, diesel, and the unmistakable smell of the Arabian Sea. There was no mistaking it—Mumbai was alive. I wasn’t prepared for the magnitude of it all. Mumbai, India’s financial capital, is often described as the city of dreams. But standing in the…
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Aarya Malik The Message The rain hadn’t stopped since dusk. It fell like memory—persistent, soft, and impossible to ignore. Marine Drive, usually buzzing with honking taxis and lovers escaping deadlines, lay blurred under a monsoon haze. The Arabian Sea raged in the distance, waves crashing against stone with the kind of wild certainty Aarav had never known in his own heart. He stood alone near the last curve of the promenade, where the streetlamp flickered every few seconds. His phone vibrated once. It wasn’t her. He stared at the message he had already sent. Come to Marine Drive. Now. Please.…