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Muran 8 : From His Person to Mine

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Some people become more than friends. Over the years, they quietly turn into a family. Especially when your friend’s spouse becomes your friend too — that is a whole different level. And then somehow, the friendship spills into the next generation. My daughter and his daughter adore each other despite the age difference. Vignesh — my friend, my bro — a friend from school. And Brinda, his lovely wife. They are family. She is pretty, sophisticated, elegant, has expensive taste, a little introverted… very girly, and loves fashion. She influenced me in many ways she is probably not even aware of. Somewhere along the way, she became my person too. These days, I talk to her more than I do with him. In fact, my first all-girls trip was with her. We even celebrated her birthday — belatedly. Their house became my safe haven in Chennai. Every time I got into a fight with my husband, I would bunk office and go straight to their house unannounced. They would drop whatever they were doing. Sometime...
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The Day Lunch Didn’t Matter

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Lunch breaks are usually the only real “me time” I get. I normally spend them doom scrolling or rewatching a comfort series I’ve already seen. I am one of the few people who go to lunch early to avoid the crowd, so the cafeteria is usually half empty. The housekeeping staff would just be setting up the vessels, barely beginning to fill the food counters. Ever since the rise of TVK, I’ve often overheard playful banter between the housekeeping akkas about TVK and DMK politics. I became a silent participant in their conversations. I smile when I agree, make a face when I don’t, and somehow they notice. They smile back, acknowledge me, and sometimes even pull me into their arguments. One akka once told me she supports the new party because her daughter strongly vouched for it. It quietly became part of my daily ritual. One afternoon, I saw the same akka near the food counter smiling at me while I was checking the menu and figuring out what to eat. She got a phone call. Within seconds, her ...
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Muran 7 - Two peas in a pod

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August 2011. A crossover episode in my life—where two very different women walked in from two completely different directions. It all started with the movie Magadheera . I loved the Golconda Fort scene and decided I had to see the place in real. That’s when the entire idea of a trip was born. I planted the seed, pitched it to my friends, and pushed everyone to join the trip. They threw around different location options, but I convinced everyone that Hyderabad was the perfect destination. Most of the people were my schoolmates, and a few were friends of friends—people I had met before and was comfortable with. That’s when one "cashew nut" from our group casually announced that he was bringing a friend from his office. Train tickets were booked. I was like, "It’s a week-long trip. Do we really need a stranger?" It was hard to make new friends as an adult. I was 25 (back then, when I thought being 25 was adulting, haha). Our group was a complete non-judgment zone, and ...
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Muran 6 - The dragon tattoo

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  Muran - The Dragon Tattoo      2005 - RVS Engineering college of engineering. On a cloudy Monday, things got out of hand. It felt like everything around me was moving at 2x speed. There was going to be a strike — third-year engineering students were planning to protest against my expulsion from college. I had no control over anything. How did I even get here? What happens next? Will I be allowed to continue? How do I face my dad? So much noise. So much chaos. And I was at the center of it — doing absolutely nothing. The actual drama started 3 days ago, on a Friday. My head was already crowded with thoughts. I had wasted my newfound “freedom” during my first two years of college — and now, in my third year, it hit me: we were running out of time. CGPA mattered. Internships mattered. Campus placements and “life after college” suddenly felt terrifyingly close. So, I switched gears — stopped all the fun stuff and focused on grades. On the outside, I acted cool. Ins...
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Muran 5 : Richest girl i know

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Richest Girl I Know      On my first day of college, my father dropped me at the hostel, said, “Be good,” and left. I was eighteen, joining RVS College of Engineering — chosen not for its reputation or course, but for one reason alone: I got to stay in a hostel far from home.      For the first time, I could breathe, speak, and exist without fear or judgment. It felt less like moving out and more like being born again.      Most kids form a sense of self when they’re two — that’s why it’s called the terrible twos.  For me, it happened at eighteen — that age when you think you know everything about the world, love, people, society, and yourself. Why, you ask?  Let me introduce you to my father. He was called the Hitler of our area — not just by me and my brothers, but by everyone within shouting distance. And no, this isn’t a Santhosh Subramaniam kind of strictness; this was Emdan Magan level tyranny.      Mental ...
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