The Stillness Within

“Ever since I left, I never thought I’d come back. But life has a way of pulling you back to the very place you ran from.”Hi, I’m Abhinav Narula.Data analyst in New York. Emotionally avoidant. Expert at pretending everything’s fine.I left India four years ago — not just to chase ambition, but to outrun memories that hurt too much to carry.Now I’m back. In a house I never called home. I find myself stuck under one roof with the family I’ve avoided, a father who still thinks emotional manipulation is a love language, and a mother whose silence says more than her words ever could.My sister Vidya? Still the same firecracker — loud, hilarious, and always ready with a punchline when things get too real.I thought this visit would be quick. Polite. Forgettable.But then I met Jiya — a street-food-obsessed, camera-wielding stranger who walks into my story like she owns the chapter. And suddenly, everything I kept buried begins to surface again.The past isn’t done with me yet. And the world around us?It’s changing faster than I can run.