A decade in communications took me through three countries,

pocketing voices, characters, textures, 

slang, and quirks,

all from a foreign lens. 

I say “foreign” to draw a deliberate distance.

I haven't, at least not consciously, immersed myself in any one culture, 

so familiarity never blunts my perception. 

I’ve romanticised this foreignness, though at times it has been confronting. 

And the only way I’ve navigated the dissonance,

is through writing. 

Using tones, perspectives, personalities, 

that I collected like postcards

to interpret the world in familiar words,

and sometimes, to turn a simple story into a Forbes headline. 

In the margins of all my roads and drafts, para began to breathe.

Between crafting C-suite narratives that inspired trust, and turning technical product specs into resonant stories,

I learnt,

powerful writing is mined from the friction between distance and intimacy. 

The outsider’s clarity, an insider’s care; 

strategy and soul. 

And this is where para lives. 

- Pallavi Rathore