This is about Shubhangi.

Very rarely you come encounter people who inspire you to commit your feelings to paper. Muse is such an over-used word. People attribute anything, and everything as a muse, diluting the power this word once held. The innate quality this word stands for is repressed when everything around you is a 'muse'.

When writing this, I wasn't sure if muse would have been an apt word. Shubhangi wasn't a catalyst

A lesser-used word, afflatus - divine, and creative inspiration seems more fitting. That's what Shubhangi is to me.

It's strange, how there are an innumerable amount of words I can write about her, yet when I finally pick up a pen, the words seem to disappear, as if my subconsciousness knows the words I write can never do her justice. How can you capture a person in mere words? How can you express someone when the entire breadth, and depth of language fails to grasp the perfection of the person? There are no words which can emulate her perfection.

I will try, regardless. My Shubhangi deserves to be known.

When I think of Shubhangi, I don't see a list of qualities. I see an amalgamation, a harmony of qualities, all intertwined, unique in nature, unlike anyone else.

Her wit sparkled in every single conversation. Her wit sparkled in every conversation. She possessed an uncanny ability to read a room, knowing exactly when to break tension with a perfectly timed joke or when to make things "comically awkward" in a way that somehow brought everyone closer. I still find myself smiling, whenever something reminds me of those moments.

Intelligence radiated from her, not as something she flaunted, but as a natural extension of the person she was. When we met, she was preparing for examinations with a resolve, like concrete, as I saw it. I've seen others prepare for similar exams for years, yet fail to overcome their own mediocrity, But Shubhangi? A few months of preparation, and she was already acing everything she touched. I thought I was intelligent until I met her. She redefined the concept for me. I never knew what true brilliance meant until I meant her.

Then there was her voice—a gift she carried casually, perhaps unaware of how it lightened everyone around her. The way she held notes when she sang made my heart flutter every time. She didn't just sing, but sang emotions. Had she chosen to pursue singing professionally, I have no doubt she would have become one of the world's great vocalists. Some talents cannot be taught; they simply exist within a person, and her voice was such a gift.

What struck me most about Shubhangi, beyond all these gifts, was her persistent kindness. Despite the struggles she faced, cynicism never took root in her. She maintained an optimistic outlook that I still find difficult to emulate. This wasn't naiveté, she was cautious in her own way but her default position was always to look for goodness in others. If presented with a button that would kill a million people, I would press it without hesitation. She would have scolded me for even suggesting such a thing.

Above all, Shubhangi embodied selflessness. Always, always looking out for others before herself. Her own happiness came second to that of those around her. Friends from school, from university, she gave pieces of herself to everyone, even when it left little time for her own needs. She loved completely. It wasn't a mere formality, she genuinely cared for the people around her. During my emotional outbursts, immature as they were, she responded with understanding rather than judgment. She catered to my feelings even when I didn't deserve such care. Such love I've never felt before or since. I was lucky, so impossibly lucky, to experience it at all.

There are innumerable words I want to write about her, yet my mind fails. I don't think what I've written here is even worthy of a tribute, but I wanted to write about her qualities in a way they were relatable. These qualities are just a fraction of the person she was. All the pages in the world can never contain the person she was.

Shubhangi is my afflatus, the one person I will love until the day I die.