Sanjay Shukla

Khairtabad! Ahhh… even saying the name feels like exhaling a memory. A small area on the banks of Hussain Sagar Lake, right at the heart of Hyderabad. There’s a portion of me that still exists here, quietly tucked between its streets and stories.

Life always seemed to slow down in Khairtabad.

You breathe a little easier here.

People look at you like they’ve known you forever – because, in some strange way, they have.

Every corner hides a piece of my past – tears of poverty, pangs of hunger, unpaid loans, and yet, laughter that still echoes, a mistake that still teaches, a friendship that never really ended.

Even the smallest things here feel familiar, the sound of the evening temple bell, the grand Bada Ganesh festivities that turned our streets into a sea of colour and noise, the aroma of chai from the old hotels, the narrow lanes that somehow, always, found a way to lead me home.

The best part of my youth was spent here, long before I became a “writer” and an “author.”

This was the place that saw me in my rawest form. The version of me that was still figuring life out – dreaming quietly, laughing loudly, getting drunk with friends & acquaintances, street brawls (fights) that ended in blood (and laughter the next morning), failing without guilt or shame, falling without fear.

Khairtabad has this strange way of humbling you and healing you at the same time. It constantly reminds me of the people who shaped me — my Pappa, my teachers, those Annas who ruled the area like big brothers, those Tammis who served with no returns (never turning their backs on you), the friends who became family, and the strangers who somehow never felt like strangers.

There’s a comfort in knowing that no matter how far life takes you, there’s this one place where you don’t have to prove anything. You don’t have to wear your titles, your achievements, or your exhaustion. You just show up — as yourself — and that’s enough.

That’s what Khairtabad does to me. It strips away the noise and brings me back to the person I was before the world told me who I should be.

Every time I walk those streets, I feel a quiet gratitude.

For the pain,

for the laughter,

for the lessons,

for the love that never left.

Khairtabad isn’t just a place. It’s a heartbeat – one that still beats somewhere inside me. And every time I come back, it reminds me – this will always be home.

— Sanjay Shukla (S.J.)