I saw four things that connected with me this morning. First, it was a man with deformity trying to walk normally. I saw him for a second and dismissed him from my sight because had I looked at him any longer, he may have felt offended. Second was a mother waving goodbye to a three or four year old child. The look conveyed mixed emotions of a mother who was sad to see the child leave her vicinity but happy to see the child go to school. The third was of a lady who was riding pillion on her husband’s scooter with a hand perched firmly on his shoulder; no further explanations necessary. Last but not the least, I saw a long & winding long distance Indian Railways train that rekindled memories from my childhood. There was also a quirky name called ‘DogMyCats’ perched atop a shop that drew an expression of ‘huh’? And there was cab where ‘romantic’ was spelled ‘roumatic’. But I’ll leave those impressions aside for now.

Universe is filled with connections; not the ones we see on LinkedIn but real ones; the ones you can relate to and feel. Events we see, people we meet and places we visit constantly add to our story. If we start to make sense of it all, we begin to see our life in a new light; our observations become sharper and our analytical ability reaches a new peak. And if we take a chance and act upon any of our intersections, we sometimes reach life changing moments. I can state that with some degree of confidence because I took a chance on someone and what she revealed was an explosion of knowledge, adaptation, creativity and music. In some ways, I can also say that we were bound to meet somewhere someplace in time but I realize that stating it like that would take away the beauty of the moment when we intersected.

Taking a chance on a connection that feels meaningful from a distance is worth it. What could possibly go wrong? Each one of us is carrying a story inside and understanding their story somewhere helps us connect to the story that’s brewing inside us and it gives us a form of expression. And life should be about expressions. I have been fortunate to meet people in my life who’ve been beautiful at expressing their thoughts. They taught me life lessons that I couldn’t have found anywhere else. Falling in love is another form of connection that brings about a churn like no other.

I’ve been in love before and I’m constantly surrounded by the feeling. I have reasons to believe that my idea of love has been a constant and it has not changed much since the time of its inception in my life. I may not have understood it as well as I do so now but what I gravitated towards has been a constant. Over a period of time, the connections I made in love kept expanding the crests and troughs of my personality giving me a dimension that was hard to reach otherwise. Over a period of time, I’ve learned to take the setbacks in love also in the same spirit as the joy it brings.

Someone asked me a question if it is possible to let go of a feeling that you want to keep but do not need and if so how. My answer at the time was to try and keep the need and want in sync so the expectations remain steady but I realized that my answer demanded a deeper introspection. The question of need versus want is an old one with no real answers that appeal to senses. I form relationships on the basis of how I feel for them; if my amplitude harmonizes with the feeling the relationship evokes, then, I commit to it. Period. I don’t look beyond in terms of whether the relationship is a want or a need but I just let the relationship rejuvenate and energize me so it retains its shape, structure and dignity. In some ways, that also balances the need versus want equation.

Our realm is too narrow to understand the laws of the universe. But what we can do is to understand the equations we share with it; keep our senses open to what we come across every day, every moment so we find connections that bring our raw emotions to the fore. These emotions sometimes terrorise but they are real and a gift since they lead us through our steps of evolution. And all it takes is that one moment of realisation; that’s all it really takes.