The Perfect Pillow
I’ve been on a long search for the perfect pillow.
I’ve tried them all…
Memory foam, feather-filled, hotel-style, orthopedic, cooling gel, firm ones that felt like bricks, soft ones that dissolved into thin air. I’ve bought the expensive, the cheap, the trendy, and the “doctor recommended.” Yet somehow, none of them ever quite did it for me. Some came close, but something was always off. A little too high. A little too flat. Bad for my neck. Lumpy in all the wrong places.
After years of trial and error, I accepted my fate… that maybe a fully rested neck simply wasn’t written in my destiny.
And then, one random afternoon five months ago, I found myself strolling through a lane in an old neighbourhood market in Delhi. I love days like this. When you’re not hunting for anything, and yet everything feels possible.
A tiny bedding shop caught my eye, and I walked in. It looked like every other local shop -stacks of quilts, towels, bedsheets, kids’ blankets with cartoon prints. But the older gentleman who ran it had the energy of someone who genuinely cared. He asked me questions, listened carefully, and took his time.
When I told him about my lifelong pillow struggle, he smiled.
“Beta, I have exactly what you need,” he said, with the confidence of a man who’s ended thousands of neck problems.
He handed me a pillow made from organic kapok fiber.
From the outside, it had everything: natural, biodegradable, breathable, locally hand-stuffed, adjustable, supportive, and somehow cloud-like. I learned kapok comes from a tree that grows fast, needs minimal water, and produces a filling that’s naturally airy without chemicals.
“Iss se acchi neend aayegi,” he said. You’ll sleep well with this.
Now, before I go on, I want to be clear: this is not a promotion. And this newsletter isn’t really about pillows, as you’ll see.
In truth, I was skeptical. Many shopkeepers had promised me salvation. All had failed.
Still, I was willing to try.
And the first night I slept on it, something wild happened.
My whole upper body let out a sigh I didn’t know it had been holding.
Could it be? Could I have finally found the one?
After five months of using it, I can confidently say the answer is an emphatic yes.
Not only is it a yes, but every night when I lay my head on that pillow, I feel a small spark of gratitude.
Every single night.
So why am I telling you this? What do pillows have to do with your life?
It reminds me of something a friend told me about the day he became a father. That when he first held his daughter, he couldn’t believe she was his. That life could feel so right. That he could be that lucky.
Too many of us settle for the life equivalent of a bad pillow.
We accept a discomfort we don’t have to.
We assume a better fit is impossible.
We think compromise is the cost of being an adult.
That alignment is rare.
That joy must always be traded for stability.
We stay in routines that drain us, jobs that dull us, relationships that don’t energize us, homes that don’t feel like ours. We tolerate friendships that don’t see us, lifestyles that don’t reflect us, and habits that don’t nurture us.
But what if most parts of life could feel like that perfect pillow?
Where every day you think… wait… is this really mine?
I get to feel like this?
I get to wake up rested?
I get to build this life, with these people, in this way?
That life exists.
And it doesn’t have to look glamorous or Instagram-worthy. It just has to feel aligned. It just has to feel like you.
The key is: don’t rush. Stay open.
Even after disappointments.
Even after the near-misses.
Because those “almosts” make the real fit feel unbelievable when it finally arrives.
We hate the in-between, the gap where we haven’t found the perfect thing yet. But if you’re patient, if you keep experimenting, if you keep your curiosity alive, life slowly increases the quality of options it sends your way… until one day, something clicks.
Until the perfect pillow appears.
Love,
Dhruv.
