Friends | Travel | Weddings | Good Byes

This one is just me, and it is a little different. It is a vlog turned into a voice note, a messy, happy, freezing cold memory from a trip I took for a friend’s wedding. It is about showing up for the people you love, the small magic of a night where nobody knows your name, and the bittersweet ache of goodbyes.

The big deal of showing up

One of my friends was getting married, and my friend Nautilus was the plus one. We made a whole group of friends, and everybody showed up. Everybody made a really big deal about it. I think about that now, how rare it is to have people make a really big deal about your joy. It is a kind of love I want to always reciprocate, even when travel gives me a headache.

A buzzing rum and cola kind of courage

I remember being at the wedding, freezing outside and a little high on the feeling. I was on a corner sofa, buzzing on rum and cola, and I was not brave enough. I am not a smooth talker under pressure. My palms get sweaty. I was trying to get someone’s attention, and I remember thinking, “I think, I think, mashaAllah, oh boy.” It was that nervous, giddy energy of a crush, the kind where you ask a friend to validate a beard or a vibe. It did not lead anywhere, but it was a sweet, human moment.

Chai, pizza, and a random flat in the middle of the night

After the wedding, we did not just come home. We had chai. Then we went for pizza, which was really good pizza because we do not have Papa John’s in Islamabad. But the real adventure started after that. We decided to go to a random friend of a friend’s place in the middle of the night. It was a completely different experience, a “mil night from Aventine with a monotonous o gangway,” as my auto-captions so poetically put it. What I meant was, it was refreshing to be somewhere where people did not know us. Back home, we get so caught up in our work, our family, and our responsibilities. This felt like hanging out with people after a really, really long time. It was a small thing that mattered deeply.

The 2:15 a.m. Goodbye

We came back, and straight up we went to the Marriott. A friend was just about to leave for the airport, so we went to say goodbye. It was 2:15 in the morning. The volume of the moment was high, the feelings were loud, and it was a beautiful, sad track playing in the background of our lives. The first time was a moment, and now this was a different kind of moment. We blocked out the fear of goodbyes and just made the memory.

Why this memory stays with me

This vlog is my favourite because it is a collection of small things that matter. It is the effort of traveling for a shaadi, the nervousness of a crush, the taste of late-night pizza, and the quiet loyalty of a 2 a.m. Airport goodbye. It is a reminder that life does not happen in the big, planned moments. It happens in the in-between, when you are a little cold, a little tired, and completely present with your people.