Shoulders drop. Exhale. Feeling at home.

That is the only goal you have in life. To make people around you feel like this.

Oct 25, 2025

Raw and Real Conversation

I am in Dubai as this message comes in your inbox. My elder cousin, his wife (my SIL), their little daughter, my younger cousin and I.

It all began on a random morning walk in August this year, where we had some 3-4 working days between the Rakshabandhan and Independence Day weekend. We all had come from our places of work to visit our respective families, and made it a point to go for a walk every morning.

One of those days, we were sitting by a lake in front of the park where we walked every morning, when out of the blue my elder bro suggested we all should plan a trip to Dubai. We were four of us (their daughter was at home, sleeping) and we all agreed instantly.

And thus, this tiny vacation of all five of us in Dubai.

What makes this special is we never go on vacations together. The last time we did something like this was when my elder cousin was getting married in 2016 and we three did his bachelor trip (which was a weekend in Bangalore).

But, now comes the question: Why am I telling this to you?

Because over the last two months, we four have been constantly chatting and discussing every little and big thing in our group. Things like:

how we lost a few thousand rupees “blocking” Vietnam tickets and not going there eventually
How I am still mad at them that we did not pick Japan
Phone calls where two people’s reels for the last one month are showing them non-stop Dubai material, and we had to claim they have gone mad :)
How the elder bro did not shop for his stuff till legit 40 hours before the trip began while his wife was ready at least two weeks in advance.
And most importantly, how we come at a unanimous conclusion even if we begin with totally different opinions.

It is the last point which I want to speak to you about:

This part of my family makes me feel at home. My shoulders drop. I exhale. I do not feel a tinge of anxiety.

The weird part is we four don’t hang around so much. Perhaps in the last two months we all have chatted double of what we would normally do in two years. But our love and respect and using each other for memes has always been the best.

There have been so many times we have disagreed on something little or big: which flight to pick, what all to do, what not to do, where to go, even chargers. And each time I see a disagreement in chat, my instinct is to run away. Because I have never seen even the most trivial disagreement in my immediate family being resolved with peace.

But lo and behold, here we not only solve our disagreements amicably and in a fun manner, we also do it in a manner that everyone’s interests are taken care of. And we never forget to make memes of it.

So few relationships in your life allow you to feel that way. Where you can just be your weirdest self and still be loved.

What I suggest to you that you as reader could do, is be someone around whom:

People don’t feel like they are on fire to save a fire
People feel their shoulders drop, and they feel relaxed
People know that disagreements are a part of life, so is solving them respectfully.

As cool and simple as it might seem, most people fail to make you feel at home, they fail to let you know through their words and conduct that no matter what, they are there for you.

You do not have to do that only to family.

You have to do that to everyone that you interact with.

The best part is, when you focus on this feeling, this emotion as the endgame of every conversation, life becomes much simpler. You realise you simply have to be an ocean of love

Before closing, let me share one of the instances from our WhatsApp chats:

One of those days of non stop trip planning, I texted in our group that I have always wanted to go to a club and dance, but never did so because doing so alone is not safe. So we must certainly do this together in a club in Dubai.

2-3 weeks later, and after hajar messages of “we must do this but this is not in our itinerary” we decided to collate a list of everything “we must do but we haven’t planned for”.

My most natural response was: “I am okay with everything you three pick”. Which I was. My entire goal is to just spend time together with my pals and get a lot of steps done daily :) I had even forgotten about clubbing at this point.

The next day we had a group call (which I missed) and lo and behold, they included “clubbing” in our list too. Something I had forgotten about!

This is what people who care about you, do.

They care about you.

I don’t know whether we went clubbing or not (since I am scheduling this the weekend prior) but it doesn’t even matter. What matters is we chilled around together.

It isn’t that hard. You just have to live your life so well that you are able to see life from the perspective of others too. It is just that simple.

Reminds me of a poem by William Martin that Sahil Bloom once shared:

Though this poem is about children, it is also about simplicity and taking care of little things.

The big things will take care of themselves.

2 Raw One Liners:

An artist doesn’t go around corporate parks convincing people in business suits to peek out of their glass windows and look at the sunset. An artist enjoys her own sunset daily, no matter what. There’s a life lesson in there.
Money can’t help you fight your own insecurity.
Only you can.

3 (for) Real good blogs that would be a great read for your weekend:

Alrighty Habibi/Habibti, I’ll see you next week.

Stay raw. Slay your flaw. Stay in your glow :)

What’s your take on today’s conversation? Do you agree, disagree, or is there something I missed?

Raw and Real by Nishtha

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