• English - Romance

    The Secret Retreat in Himachal

    September 2, 2025 - By 

    Sahil Joshi Chapter 1 – The Escape The road from Delhi to Himachal was long, winding, and mercilessly steep in places, but for Naina Mehta it felt like a necessary unspooling of the tightly wound knots inside her. Every turn that took her further from the horns, the deadlines, and the gray concrete haze of the city was a small act of release. Sitting by the window of the cab, she pressed her forehead against the cool glass, inhaling the sharp scent of pine that drifted in whenever the driver lowered his window. It had been years since she had…

  • English - Romance

    Salt on Her Skin

    August 2, 2025 - By 

    Radhika Sehgal 1 The window of the Konkan railway train was half-open, letting in gusts of salted wind that tangled Ankita’s hair and stung her tired eyes. She didn’t care. She had left her sleek Bangalore apartment with the bed unmade, the inbox unread, and a message to her agency that she was “on a sabbatical for mental health.” It wasn’t entirely untrue, though she didn’t owe anyone more than that. Her body still felt wired with city static—thumb twitching toward a phone that now lay dead and buried in her canvas bag. Gokarna was a dot on a map…

  • English - Romance

    Midnight Jasmine

    July 26, 2025 - By 

    Punit Verma Chapter 1: The Scent of Silence The train to Jaipur had arrived late, and by the time Naina Kapoor reached the haveli, the sun had already begun its descent behind the sand-kissed domes. Her taxi curved through the narrow lanes of the old city, honking past cows, scooters, and spice-laden carts, before halting before a tall wrought-iron gate. Beyond it stood Rathore Haveli — ancient, quiet, and steeped in the kind of forgotten grace that makes you instinctively lower your voice. The caretaker opened the gate with a creak, and she stepped into a world of fading frescoes,…

  • English - Romance

    Under the Same Stars

    July 23, 2025 - By 

    Shibani Deshmukh The cold hit Dr. Neha Kapoor before she even stepped out of the jeep. The wind in Spiti Valley wasn’t just chilly—it carried a weight, a silence that wrapped itself around her city-worn senses. She tightened the scarf around her neck, blinking at the vast, arid landscape dotted with whitewashed stupas and jagged peaks dusted with snow. Kaza looked like a forgotten outpost painted in muted tones—nothing like the neon haze of Mumbai. Her phone had lost signal three hours ago, and the absence of constant vibration felt more like amputation than relief. A dozen strangers from different…

  • English - Romance

    Bougainvillea House

    July 15, 2025 - By 

    Vihaan Pillai 1 The first thing Diya Roy noticed as she stepped out of the auto-rickshaw was the riot of bougainvillea spilling over the crumbling walls, their magenta petals fluttering down like tired confetti. The villa, hidden behind this living curtain, looked both majestic and broken, its yellowed walls cracked with age, wooden shutters hanging loose, and a mossy veranda that hinted at better days. For a long moment, Diya stood silently, suitcase in hand, as the afternoon sun pressed gently against her skin, warming the doubt that had settled in her chest since she left Chennai. It had been…

  • English - Romance - Travel

    Postcards from Hampi

    July 13, 2025 - By 

    Sahana Pillai Chapter 1: Arrival in Ruins The sun was slipping behind the rust-coloured boulders when Tara stepped off the bus at Hampi Bazaar. The air smelled of dust, old stones, and wild basil, and the landscape looked nothing like the glossy travel blogs she’d scrolled through. This place felt older than time — a skeleton of an ancient empire, wrapped in silence. Her sandals crunched over gravel as she made her way past stray goats and rusted bicycles, dragging her suitcase with one wheel jammed. She had booked a guesthouse last minute, something called “Kishkinda View,” tucked behind banana…

  • English - Romance

    Kissing in Connaught Place

    July 1, 2025 - By 

    Niharika Sen 1 The sky over Delhi had been sulking since morning, draped in heavy grey clouds that threatened to spill at any moment. Connaught Place bustled beneath it, the circular heart of the capital moving in its usual rhythm—cars honking in chorus, office-goers pacing down colonnades, street vendors shouting their evening rates, and college students lazing on the central park’s damp benches. It was somewhere between four and five in the afternoon when the skies gave in. First, a misty drizzle, then sheets of warm rain fell, catching the crowd mid-stride. People ducked under awnings, ducked into cafés, and…

  • English - Romance

    A Lotus in Winter

    June 23, 2025 - By 

    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…

  • English - Romance

    When the Light Changed

    June 19, 2025 - By 

    Reyan D’Souza The First Red Light It began, as many quiet revolutions do, with something small. Aria was running late again—not disastrously, not enough to be fired—but just enough to skip breakfast, mutter at the broken coffee machine in her apartment building, and step onto the pavement at exactly 7:58 a.m., breathless. The traffic light in front of her office glowed a fierce red, holding back the swarm of pedestrians like a patient conductor. That was when she saw him. Standing across the street, half in shadow, half in light, holding a book in one hand and a bag slung…

  • English - Romance

    Tea Leaves & Torn Pages

    June 19, 2025 - By 

    Pranit Biswas Chapter 1: The train to Shimla groaned like an old man remembering youth, dragging itself along curved mountain tracks as fog pressed against its windows. Dr. Amit Roy sat alone near the back, a well-worn leather satchel tucked beside him and a battered paperback of The Old Man and the Sea unopened in his lap. The book had been his travel companion through many stations of life—marriage, fatherhood, heartbreak—but today he couldn’t bring himself to read. His fingers traced the creases on its cover absently as snow flurried outside in brief gusts. After eighteen years of teaching literature…