Nothing gets thrown out in Berlin. In the summer of 2019, I struggled to pack my entire existence into two pieces of luggage: 23 kilograms each. I did what I had to in order to carry on; that’s additional. I’m a hoarder, and so my heart was more set on packing a souvenir ukulele than it…

As a child, I appreciated the variety but hated cinnamon. I cannot be the only one. I distinctly remember hating these chunks of bark and dried up leaves in my food. My tongue could do sweet, salty, spicy, and candy. I couldn’t appreciate the complexity of cardamom, but I could tell the difference between tap and bottled water. I was…

Berlin is a small city with a big personality. Much like the city, every neighbourhood is an adjective. — It’s tacky to begin an essay with a dictionary definition, but hear me out. Google Translate defines pfand as a “pledge.” Every time you pay for a bottle in Germany, you pay a small deposit that you can claim if you bring the bottle back. So, you’re pledging to…

Sounds like the set-up for a grand joke, but this is just me exploring what I found to be the least gentrified Indian space in Berlin. — Stuck in what was a balancing act to keep all my glass bottles and plastic bottles from overflowing out of my large tattered grocery bag, I thought about how I had stopped going to the store that I had initially bought the bag from. I wondered if I should replace…

If it doesn’t fit in your palm, maybe it’s not lucky. I don’t believe in luck, or at least I try not to. Of course, I give in and look for a new source of hope but not without putting up a fight. It’s the last resort. You know how…

Meteorology and geography — I mean, it’s all related, right? We lock our windows before we go to bed. Is it possible that you feel cold because there’s a gust of memories pricking at your skin, urging you to go back? Yeeeeeesh. I’m not so sure I should’ve said that…

A year ago, I left what had been home for more than a decade to move to Berlin. I remember the sprint from the international terminal to the domestic one. I was so, so terrified of missing my connecting flight. The sun had been out, but the fear had kept…