Felt Familiar. We continued talking. He was from… | by Komal Borse | Nov, 2025

His voice was sleepy and heavy when he picked up. He said “hello” in this deep, warm tone, he sounded mature… almost older, but in a comforting way.
And the first thing I said was, “You have a really nice voice… actually, a very intimate one.”
He laughed softly, almost shy, and said, “Yeah… I’ve heard that from many people.”

We continued talking. He was from Gorakhpur, UP.
I told him I was living in Delhi at that time, but my native is Bhopal, and I am actually Marathi. He got confused for a moment , like he didn’t understand what I meant, so I explained.
I told him, “Not every Muslim lives in Pakistan, though…”
He said, “Oh… okay okay.”

After that, our conversation became deeper, we discussed politics, social issues, gender norms, and the huge loopholes society still has for women. We spoke about how both women and men suffer because of patriarchy.

It wasn’t just a conversation, it felt like connection.

Time just slipped away.

We didn’t realise when it went from 3 A.M. to 9 A.M.
The sky had already turned pale with morning light…
and somewhere inside, I was already a little infatuated with him.

But still… I kept dragging a part of myself back to that old relationship, the one that was already dead, but I was still holding onto it in my mind.

Sometimes you feel nostalgic because of a smell, or a sound, or a touch.
And sometimes you feel nostalgic because of a person, even when you don’t even have any nostalgic memory with them.
Some conversations settle in your soul so perfectly that even if you had no opinion in the beginning, you still end up gaining clarity… consciousness… alignment.

But I told myself
if he is still interested tomorrow, then I’ll talk to him again.

The next day came.
He didn’t send a single message.
Not even a “hi.”

But later that night, he sent me some reels.
I replied to one of them, pointing out something funny, and he responded.
And just like that, the conversation opened again.

He asked for a call once more.
I said “okay.”

And again, I said, softly,

“hello…”