Amy Slanger

The Curl on the Corner of the Carpet

Pale clothes, missing buttons, and the sound of bangles being removed.

April 30, 2026 · 938 words

I Suspect I’m a Quantum System (Mostly Collapsing Into Disappointment)

I exist in infinite potential until observed, at which point I become… this

April 24, 2026 · 586 words

Corners That Don’t Get Cleaned

There are places you don’t think to look.

April 8, 2026 · 1,104 words

I Became My Mother at 4AM

No one prepares you for the kind of life that settles in quietly

March 25, 2026 · 732 words

Some Nights, I Rehearse Telling You I’m Afraid of the Dark

A life continues in small, precise ways after the person it was built with leaves

March 23, 2026 · 2,291 words

What We Brought With Us

It happened slowly.

March 7, 2026 · 1,456 words

The Stranger at the Oasis

Familiarity has a price. Yet living without it has a cost.

March 6, 2026 · 647 words

The Only Thing That Didn’t Change

Fifteen years later, we met at an airport.

March 6, 2026 · 1,052 words

The Strange Loneliness of Being the Strong One

Sometimes strength is just loneliness that learned how to function.

March 3, 2026 · 953 words

The Cab Driver Who Had a 30-Year Plan

A cab driver with no radio had a clearer future than I did.

March 2, 2026 · 791 words

The Afternoon I Couldn’t Find a Reason to Hurry

On the rare discomfort of a day that asked nothing of me.

March 2, 2026 · 1,199 words

Her First Word Wasn’t What I Hoped to Hear

How I learned that what we call destiny is often just familiarity

February 25, 2026 · 670 words

Single Motherhood Is Mostly Administrative

No lessons, just survival and missing shoes.

February 17, 2026 · 628 words

Some People Don’t Come Back. They Just Continue Inside You.

The brain doesn’t hold on to people. It builds pathways around them.

February 14, 2026 · 648 words

On the Old Town Road

When language becomes the only way to carry what survives

February 9, 2026 · 495 words

You Didn’t Lose Meaning

It interacted with adulthood and never recovered.

January 20, 2026 · 897 words

Grief

High-Functioning Grief is the Loneliest Kind

Why we were never meant to mourn while being productive

January 19, 2026 · 555 words

Everyone Is Healing. No One Is Accountable

Or: how therapy language became the most polite way to disappear

December 31, 2025 · 833 words

Nothing Exploded

2025: The Year I Didn’t Win, I Just Didn’t Lose.

December 17, 2025 · 1,152 words

I Healed So Hard, Now Life Is Boring Me

An essay about recovery, boredom, and missing the chaos that explained me

December 13, 2025 · 780 words

Faith

I Keep a Knife Under My Mattress

Not an article for spirituality influencers.

December 11, 2025 · 1,064 words

Why Does He Do That? In Present Tense.

A hyperventilating book review addressed directly to Mr. Lundy Bancroft

December 8, 2025 · 902 words

Why I Judge People Who Run Marathons

Run your marathons. I’ll run my mouth

December 5, 2025 · 1,017 words

Why Overthinkers Would Survive the Apocalypse

And make even the zombies reconsider their life choices.

December 5, 2025 · 910 words

The Schrödinger’s Burnout: Alive, Dead, and Still Showing Up to Work Like an Idiot

A darkly scientific love letter to everyone functioning on vibes, trauma, and caffeine.

December 4, 2025 · 1,099 words

If He’s Not In Your Dreams, Your Subconscious Has Already Dumped Him

A neuroscientific love letter to your subconscious, the only part of you with taste.

November 26, 2025 · 1,274 words

The Ghosts We Inherited

Understanding the science behind our suffering and why Indians need to talk about mental health like it’s human, not haunted.

November 21, 2025 · 646 words

The Tick in My Ceiling Fan

A tiny noise kept me awake for years.

November 20, 2025 · 773 words

Scientific Explanation of Why I Can’t Wake Up on Time

A letter to my very Indian mother with chappal throwing skills of an Indian Cricketer.

November 19, 2025 · 922 words

Pompeii, and the Version of Me That Stayed Behind

When life moves on, but a part of you remains frozen in the moment everything changed.

November 17, 2025 · 2,073 words

Faith

A Temple in Langkawi and the Stick Number 99

On friendship, fate, fortune sticks, and learning to accept something good.

November 16, 2025 · 802 words

My First Ever Kissing Scene

Brought to me by stealing cable and a few unfortunate moments from my innocent life.

November 14, 2025 · 779 words

The Guava Tree That Grew Up With Me

Childhood was Green.

November 14, 2025 · 683 words

My House is Bigger in My Memory

On childhood homes, sisterhood across continents, and why everything feels larger when we’re small.

November 14, 2025 · 731 words

The Year I Realised Summer Vacation Was Never Coming Back

A quiet heartbreak every adult carries without talking about it.

November 12, 2025 · 871 words

To the Men Who Wanted to Fix Me

Keep your advice, your ego, and your finger, I know where you can put them

November 12, 2025 · 740 words

Productivity, but Make It Trauma

When ambition is just anxiety with a LinkedIn profile.

November 7, 2025 · 872 words

God

The Reward Is Not at the End

God is with those who are patient

November 7, 2025 · 606 words

Jaagte Raho

Every night, someone stayed awake so we could dream.

November 6, 2025 · 780 words

God Tried to Fix My Sister. Then He Gave Up

A love letter to the most chaotic, radiant, impossible woman I know.

October 28, 2025 · 1,538 words

Travel

Jeeti Raho

She once left home as a bride. Now she returns as a shadow.

October 27, 2025 · 909 words

The Good Girl’s Bad Guide to Accepting the Love She Deserves

A survival manual for women who’ve done their time in emotional rehab.

October 27, 2025 · 815 words

To the Witch on the Moon

From one outcast to another, under the same pale moon.

October 22, 2025 · 689 words

To the Shimmering Lights Hanging from the Balcony

A letter to an object that makes me so happy

October 16, 2025 · 961 words

Universal Consciousness, Explained Badly (But Honestly)

Symbols don’t sit quietly in dictionaries. They float like waves until we look at them, collapsing into fear, healing, or divinity.

October 14, 2025 · 825 words

Things My Daughter Taught Me About Not Belonging

When home becomes a moving thing.

October 13, 2025 · 580 words

Yellow Should Be Edible

Some colors don’t just appear — they happen to you.

October 13, 2025 · 705 words

Oh, You, the Wrapped One

When you are called from your hiding.

October 9, 2025 · 516 words

Myself

A reflection on the I that reads, feels, and observes.

October 8, 2025 · 1,237 words

The Girl Who Read to Stay Alive

On books, belonging, and the strangers who save us. Finding tenderness, one secondhand book at a time.

October 5, 2025 · 695 words

Belonging Comes Late

On the fragments, ghosts, and fleeting moments we mistake for home.

October 2, 2025 · 839 words

God

PTSD Disguised as Scripture

On how trauma is retold until it becomes prophecy, and why survival has always needed stories.

September 26, 2025 · 414 words

Inside a Mother’s Mind

The fears, the longings, the curses, and the love that never let me rest.

September 26, 2025 · 893 words

The Woman Not Called Durga

A goddess is not always carved in stone. Sometimes she is a widow with eight children and ten invisible arms.

September 25, 2025 · 787 words

Rhythm Interrupted

How the future interrupts, and what we do in the pause

September 24, 2025 · 564 words

Guilt, My Most Loyal Pet

Forget cats and dogs. The only pet that outlives you is guilt.

September 24, 2025 · 797 words

Good Girls and Their Monsters

Every time women swallow anger, they grow a new beast inside them.

September 18, 2025 · 617 words

How to Survive the Circus (101 for Women Who Do It All)

No medals, no applause. Just the quiet constancy of women who keep the show alive.

September 18, 2025 · 1,240 words

Where the Lanes Still Remember Us

A mosque and adjoining graveyard in a quiet village.

September 16, 2025 · 932 words

Divorce

The Art of Getting Naked

Taking your clothes off isn’t the first step of nakedness; shame is stitched tighter

September 12, 2025 · 831 words

An Obituary for the Man Who Carried Too Much. My Tau Mamu

A tribute to my favorite guy: Tau mamu filled my childhood with mangoes, laughter, and safety, yet fought a silent war that ended in…

September 10, 2025 · 482 words

My Cat Turned Into a Groom and I Became the Mother-in-Law

This December, I may be promoted to cat grandma.

September 10, 2025 · 608 words

Congratulations! You’ve Won Trauma for Life

Love-bombing feels less romance and more a spam text: Congratulations! You’ve won trauma for life. And yes, I clicked.

September 3, 2025 · 603 words

God, Take My Imagination and Burn It — Finally

The first time in history, Romeo and Juliet lived happily ever after. Separately. The only thing that died was their love. Here’s Part 1…

September 1, 2025 · 649 words

The Nest on My AC Unit

A lifetime of loves, mistakes, and lessons, told through the clumsy little nest outside my window

August 26, 2025 · 565 words

The Mirage and the Matchbox: Part 3

This is Part 3 of a four-part memoir series about my first months in the UAE. here’s Part 1 and Part 2

August 25, 2025 · 578 words

The Crooked Thumb

Childhood was… cinematic.

August 25, 2025 · 1,373 words

How We Staged a Love Story in Maths Tuition

Maths: zero. Gossip algebra: full marks.

August 21, 2025 · 395 words

Grief

How to Look Functional While Falling Apart

From leaky ACs to butt-dialing your ex, here’s how to spin chaos into competence . One mop, one necklace, and one lie at a time.

August 19, 2025 · 521 words

When Life is a Joke, Add Your Own Punchline

Not everything is survived with candles and breathing exercises. Sometimes you just need to tape stamps to a broken window and laugh

August 17, 2025 · 763 words

JD on the Rocks, LIIT in a Coke Bottle

I almost made it into a Netflix true-crime doc, but at least I found freedom from my own ghosts.

August 14, 2025 · 906 words

Every Balcony Under My Moon

I’ve had more balconies than I’ve had support, and they’ve been far more reliable.

August 13, 2025 · 950 words

God, Take My Imagination and Burn It — Part 2

continuation to

August 11, 2025 · 855 words

Bitter Leaves, Sweet Memories

The Neem Tree —From punishment stick to parrot’s grave, it held more of my childhood than any diary could.

August 11, 2025 · 731 words

How to Survive Life Without Thriving

A memoir for anyone whose coping mechanisms have their own coping mechanisms

August 9, 2025 · 372 words

How to ruin your own stability in style.

The line is a lie, people. Wake up.

August 8, 2025 · 1,057 words

A Tribute to Jafri Uncle

Syed Naqi Husain Jafri was one of those men, not just for me, but for so many of the little kids who have now grown into adults. He…

August 6, 2025 · 658 words

Engaged to a JPEG: My Big Fat Nowhere Engagement

A solo engagement, a man with zero presence, and a whole family pretending it was normal.

August 6, 2025 · 371 words

How to Not Cry in Public: A Guide by Someone Who Fails Every Time

Because once you let go, you’re done. And people? They stare. They pity. Or worse, they offer advice.

August 5, 2025 · 954 words

This Mess is Mine

not-so-good girl who buys crayons like penance, interviews men who flinch, and finds comfort in chole

August 5, 2025 · 710 words

The Trade Fair, and a Love That Lingered

When love was just holding hands, jumping on gobi trucks, and laughing at sweet corn stuck in our teeth

August 4, 2025 · 773 words

Winter Afternoons, Terrace, and an Aeroplane in the Sky

All We Wanted Was the Sky

August 1, 2025 · 980 words

Seven Idiots, One PTM, and Zero Regrets

G7! Not a global summit, but seven kids skipping PTMs, stacking Coke straws, and forming the most underperforming yet unforgettable gang .

August 1, 2025 · 385 words

God, Take My Imagination and Burn It — Part 1

Weekly continuation on A Study in Delulu

July 30, 2025 · 539 words

Confessions of a Former Covert Narcissist (Who’s Now Your Boss)

or how I weaponized empathy, called it love, and now just call it Tuesday.

July 28, 2025 · 539 words

When the Jinn Waited Their Turn

A postpartum story of blood, ghosts, milk, and choosing not to die just yet.

July 26, 2025 · 582 words

Victoria’s Secret, Vengeance, and a Very Lucky Man

Talk to me if we can make a Netflix series.

July 20, 2025 · 741 words

Night 1 — I Dont Want Two Cents.

Ageing is costly. A retinol cream can set you back 10 to 15 thousand rupees. Diluting it with tears is probably the worst return on…

July 5, 2023 · 188 words

Dear Future..

You and the moon beside me always,

July 2, 2023 · 548 words

An Ode to My Bed

Yesterday, I changed my bed.

August 3, 2017 · 2,140 words