Garima Chhikara

I’m Garima Chhikara, a writer in Bengaluru who grew up in Delhi. I used to be a product manager, writing PRDs and trying to predict what people might need someday. Now I write stories that try to catch change in the act. I have never felt more like myself.

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I have been storytelling since childhood, reimagining fairy tales, inventing ghosts, and scribbling feelings I did not yet have names for. I still write that way, with my hands outstretched in the dark, curious about what might answer back. I write about what we say, what we can’t, and what it means to try anyway. If a story makes someone think oh… it’s not just me, then it has done its job.

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My work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and appears in places like The Forge Literary Magazine, Hobart, Lost Balloon, and elsewhere. I read fiction for Split Lip Magazine and I am building my first short story collection with the kind of hope that annoys even me sometimes.

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I live with a cat who respects solitude and treats book pages like a sensory experience. One day, I want a small, chaotic farm of goats, hermit crabs, turtles, and a dog or four. For now, it is just us and notebooks scattered everywhere. I try to write every day, even if it is one ugly line. It still matters.

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I do not have a sweet tooth unless stress is running the show. Give me spice, salt, buttered croissants, old rom-coms, songs that feel like letters, and thrillers that make me question the floor. I have not decided if I prefer mountains or beaches. I just like horizons that remind me there is more.

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