A Room With a View — and You
Anaya was a corporate consultant from Mumbai, always on the move — cities changed, but her go-to choice never did. Every time, she checked into a PAJASA service apartment. The familiarity comforted her — clean rooms, a working kitchen, and peace after chaotic workdays.
This time, it was Hyderabad. The apartment in Kondapur overlooked the city skyline, and Anaya was settling in for a two-month project. Her days were long, filled with meetings and presentations. Her evenings were quiet — spent cooking light meals in the compact kitchen and catching up on novels.
Until one evening, the sound of music seeped through the walls. It wasn’t disruptive — just... interesting. Jazz. Live guitar. The next morning in the common lobby, she saw him — Arjun, a sound engineer in town for a concert series. He smiled, a little embarrassed. “I hope the walls didn’t hate my music last night.”
She smiled back. “Only made the place more alive.”
Soon, coffee became a shared ritual. On the weekends, they'd explore the city — strolls near Shilparamam, biryani in Jubilee Hills, chai stops at roadside stalls. Back at the apartment, they'd laugh over burnt toast experiments in the kitchen and lazy breakfasts in the sunlit dining area.
Days turned into weeks. One Sunday, while sitting on the balcony, she looked over at him and asked, “When your concert ends, will you miss this?”
He said, without skipping a beat, “I’ll miss us here.”
Her project wrapped. His final show was a standing ovation. But neither packed up. Instead, they moved to a new PAJASA apartment in Bangalore — together this time.
Because sometimes, the best stays aren’t about the city. They’re about the story you write in it.