Ayushi Rana

Why Dostoevsky’s Forgotten Love Story Still Feels Like Modern Loneliness “I make up regular romances in my dreams.” “My heart was fluttering like a captured bird.” These lines aren’t from a Twitter thread on heartbreak or a quote from a teenage journal — they were written in 1848. In White Nights, Fyodor Dostoevsky builds a love story so gentle and awkward, so melancholic and fleeting, it feels like it could’ve happened to you or me just yesterday.

Sylvia Plath — god, what an interesting writer. Sometimes I feel like The Bell Jar is just a prequel to her real life. And that makes it scarier. Because she made it — she was successful, brilliant, married, a mother — everything society paints as the finish line. But she still… chose to go. I’ve been going through a stage in my life where I hate everyone. Even myself. I think about unaliving myself every day — not actively, not with a plan, but like a vision that just plays in the background.

As they say, the only way out is the way in. This holds much more significance in our contemporary world, laden with fast-paced technology, one-touch communications, and ever-evolving trends. Understanding your self becomes essential, especially in this global, chaotic, modern, and digital age. But this is easier said than done. In this global hustle and digital chaos, the fundamental question is how one can master and sustain the art of tranquillity.