The Logistics of Modern Love

Flights, quick commerce and memes – a Delhi–Bangalore field report

The first thing that hits at Delhi T-3 is the taste of burnt air, metallic and reheated. Bangalore lets me breathe; here, I count each inhale like loose change. 8:17 PM: Boarding group 3 is already queuing with their boarding passes ready. I join the line anyway—the line that buys forty-eight hours of hugs, kisses, and her laughter. Even the KIA bus ride to Marathahalli feels negotiable once her voice is on speaker, promising "almost there."

Love, when you're 1,740 km apart, becomes a series of receipts. I can't brush your hair off your face, but I can schedule a rose at 3 p.m. because your calendar says "review meeting." I can't split the last bite of my sandwich, but I can Swiggy a single chocolate truffle so it lands between your cramps and your code commit. A warm bag is impossible, yet Blinkit can still land dark chocolate before the period cramps turn sharp. Showing up is just logistics with better wrapping paper.

Every evening we circle the same three words: "How was your day?" It looks ordinary, but it's the campfire we keep alive. Some days, the answer is three words: "It was fine." Some days it's a photo of her having tea and a voice note that starts with endless cribbing about "You know what happened at the office…" and ends with "I wish you were here!" This phone call is the one to wash off all the dread of the day.

But not all nights are like that. Some nights, the distance gets loud. A single "hmm" that sits in the chat like a slammed door. We fumble with work commitments, patchy signals, the impossible geometry of two phones trying to hug. The fights are shorter on data, longer in echo; apologies arrive as voice notes we replay just to hear the softness return. Still, the ledger stays positive: every quarrel ends with a new cheesecake delivery by Swiggy and a silent promise that the next sunrise will be shared on a video call.

Physical touch is a currency we rarely get to spend, so we issue IOUs in creative denominations:

  • An Insta reel of two cats spooning—redeemable for one flying hug
  • A GIF of cartoon characters kissing—worth two forehead kisses
  • A midnight fudge delivery that lands with the delivery guy's grin: "Ma'am, someone loves you a lot"
  • And countless voice notes of "abhi na jao chhod kar…" sung off-key but on time

We don't know which city will finally claim us. But for now, we live in the space between boarding passes, in layovers where we video-call from the same time zone, in the small thrill of seeing "I've landed" pop up on our WhatsApp chat. Until then, we keep proving the simplest thing: how does modern love thrive?—by flight, by food, by meme, and always by EFFORTS and TRUST.

.