Geet Vijayvergia - Geet Vijayvergia

Open Letter To the Universe

Aug 2, 2020 | 2 comments

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Hi!

This goes out to everyone, literally everyone who is with me, was with me and will meet me. Hello to the ones I’ll meet, because we may not have talked to each other, maybe we are strangers or you may not even know that I exist. You may not know me, but you’re wishing for me. That’s all the reasons we’ll ever meet; You called me, you wanted me. And I will be with you. I promise.

You know when I realised this? There are times when you look at people and feel like, what would it be like to know such or such person. You feel like befriending them even if not a close friendship. Even if it’s just like an acquaintance. It happened to me too. There was one person that I simply wanted to know. Nothing else. Just get to know him. And one fine day, when I’m playing volleyball with my best friend like the noob I am, that guy literally walks up to me. Like literally walks up to me. Well not exactly me, more like us. But you get the point. Imagine how freaking crazy this is. It is crazy for us. For the universe, not so crazy. That’s what it does. It connects people. 24x7x365.

Mind you, this was not a one odd time, unless you consider 6 instances as coincidences too. There are 6 other very real people who I wanted to know and now they are in my actual proximity even if 2 of them are mere acquaintances. But they know I exist. For me it’s quite a fascinating thing to suddenly be acquaintances with someone whose universe previously didn’t overlap with mine. And the other 4 are actually my friends. Not like friends whom I see once a week and then forget them for the next 10 days. They are my friends that actually know what is happening with me, what I’m up to. These people have actually spent time with me. Remember my two friends who turned into brothers? One of them is one of these 6 people.

I really wished for these people to be my friends and now they are. I would say that I can’t believe these coincidences, and in fact I’d not even call these coincidences. Maybe unconscious intentions? These were probably the things meant to happen. As if they were destined.

So, this was for those, who are (and will be) with me, those who are listening to me and those who need me. Remember, I’m there for you; if not now then maybe someday. But I will surely be there for you one day. Maybe we’ve seen each other, but our paths are yet to cross. I’m sure that they will.

See you soon.

Sending you love, hope it gets there before I do.

______________________________________________

There. I’ve bared my soul in this letter. Honestly, it’s a very surreal feeling to even type this out. Because this is very very different from how we talk about life in general, in everyday life. We never think that we’ve brought the people that are in our lives. But that’s just how things work. The world will bring you what you wish for. I think you just need to wish hard enough for it.

Paulo Coelho Quote: “When you want something, all the universe ...

https://quotefancy.com/quote/221/Paulo-Coelho-When-you-want-something-all-the-universe-conspires-in-helping-you-to-achieve

I had written this letter almost a year ago back in August 2019 and I had written in it a very different state of mind that I am in now. I was in a state of realisation I would say. Somewhat a ‘Eureka!’ moment. I guess this is just a way for me to remind myself that life’s been brighter. It’s not like things are bad now, but just not the most lively and exciting. Feel free to consider this post and other ones too as a reminder for yourselves.

Please spread it so that I can meet the wonderful people who are yet to come in my life. I’ll be forever thankful to you for this.

And in case, I don’t know you personally, I’d like to change that. Just drop a comment below and I’ll write to you.

Let me know who you brought into your life unintentionally.

Polaroid and Me

Jul 26, 2020 | 4 comments

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Click.

That’s how we take our Starbucks coffee’s photo for an insta story, right? Five at one go. Only to be never looked at again.

You know, sometimes the irony of life really amazes me. Like beyond imagination.

We take pictures to capture our memories, to freeze them with the passage of time. Memories we will want to revisit. We click photos so that we can laugh again at the trip we took on our birthday, even 15 years later.

One can dig up almost any memory that is buried deep inside our hearts, solely with pictures and snapshots. And before you know it, the entire family will be bubbling with incidents to share. The elders will be sharing the events with great nostalgia and the younger ones will be listening to the tales like they were fiction. Soon enough you could live through an incident that had happened way before you were born.

All of this with the help of a piece of cardboard. Oh, the power it holds.

To accomplish this somewhat even more efficiently, we turned to digital photography, because it allows us to take as many pictures as we want. So that we don’t have to confine ourselves to the 16 photo restrictions of 120mm of the film roll. We can take pictures without the uncertainty whether they’ll turn out fine or not.

The paradox kicks in here. Unlike the 70s and the 80s, clicking a picture has become simple beyond comprehension. You don’t have to wait for days to get the photos processed, let alone edited. Now clicking photos is not reserved for special days and is definitely not a planned activity (we’ve got candids now 😏).We can pull out our phone and click pictures of almost anything and everything that interests us.

This is like what happened to aluminium. When aluminium was discovered, Napoleon III served food to his more illustrious guests in aluminium utensils and the less honourable ones were served in gold and silver utensils. Later on, aluminium was widely used among beggars in Paris.

What we can see here is that as soon as a product became abundant, its value dwindled.

So is the case with photos. As much as I appreciate the pocket-sized convenience that a camera and a phone is, I’ve seen myself and others taking pictures just because we can. We take pictures till the time we are satisfied that we have enough to show people. When that’s done and statuses & stories are uploaded, there’s a major chance that you’ll ever look at them again and feel nostalgic. Of course, unless it’s a pic from your trip and not a pic of what you just ate. And doing the same, we often lose the awareness of where we are and what we are doing.

The result of this is a hazy memory of the place whose photograph is being taken. Hmm… Quite the opposite to the purpose of photos.

This happens because your brain starts to rely on “memory of the camera” and also starts to divert more energy towards visual imagery. And this is not coming from me. It’s a consequence of the “photo-taking impairment effect” first identified in a 2013 study.

So… How can we actually remember the memories from your photographs or we will continue to be Ghajini forever and lead our lives with photographic clues?

The resolution (pun intended) to this is – recalling your memories through photographs. Just like the old times wherein you click just enough photos that allow you to summon the memories, not give you the minute to minute details of the day.

You can do another thing. After you take enough pictures of the specific day or event, you should just sit back and absorb the scene. Take notice of the color of the sky, the smell in the air and everything you can using your senses.

I took this one step further and did an interesting thing to accomplish this. I bought a polaroid camera. The limitation of the film I’ll have to put in it will keep in check, how much time I am spending clicking photos and how much I am devouring what is in front of me.

Psst… I’ll tell you a secret. The camera has pretty awesome aesthetics too.

I’m dropping the link down below in case you too are interested in taking your limited photography a step further.

https://amzn.to/30L8Iro
Here is the video that inspired this post: How To Remember Your Life

What is Beginner’s Luck?

Jul 19, 2020 | 8 comments

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“That was fun.” I told my bestfriend after coming out of a bowling alley for the first time in my life.

“You were pretty good for your first time.” She acknowledged me, clearly impressed.

“Thank you. Thank you.”

“Well, don’t be too happy cause all it is, is beginner’s luck.”

The last part set me thinking on this phenomenon – beginner’s luck – a phrase that we use around so much without even knowing why it is the way it is.

According to the Cambridge Dictionary (who hopefully isn’t a beginner for the sake of our literature knowledge), beginner’s luck is an unexpected success experienced by a person who is just starting a particular activity.

That means, you are more likely to excel at an activity, sport, competition or a game, if you’ve never tried your hand at it before.

As I look back on that non-lockdown day, I figure that’s exactly what happened with me that day in the bowling alley. I had no knowledge, no previous experience of the game. And still I managed to come in second position. Maybe even first for all I remember.

Source: shorturl.at/giQUZ

Hold up. This makes absolutely no sense. Yeah. It is actually pretty counter-intuitive to think that a novice would beat an expert.

Well there are ample reasons for the same, the foremost one being the detachment between the beginner and the game, sport, competition or activity. The newcomer has no past record or history, thus he doesn’t have to live up to anything. He or she doesn’t have a reputation on stake. All of this because they are new at the activity and aren’t even expected to do very well. Unlike many others already in the race, they wanna perform well because they’re excited and not just dragging through it. So they perceive the situation to be in their favor. What we perceive affects how we perform And as it turns out, that perception can influence us in very real ways.

In short, these guys got no pressure. Just like I had none, when I scored a perfect 10 CGPA in 6th grade, because that was the first year we got CGPAs and hence, no past record.

The other reason prevails in the territory of games and sports or competitive scenarios. If you were to play any game, indoor or outdoor, with your regular buddy, you’ll surely know what move they’ll play when they’re stuck. Like said, being a beginner means having no past records. Which further means, no track of the strategies used by them. You can add two and two now. And for those who are unable to – it means that the opponent usually plans his own strategy based on your previous actions. So if he doesn’t know about them, he’ll be caught off guard and hence increase your chance of winning extensively.

Okay. Understood.

But why did you spend your time reading this? Because there’s something for you too.

Beginner’s luck is good to have, isn’t it? But it won’t be beginner’s luck after the first time. Although you can surely keep that winning streak.

Disconnect yourself from the pressure of the competition. From the pressure of the expectations. I am fully aware that this is way easier said than done. But we can always try. Looking at it, I can see my grade’s topper doing the same thing. After the exams when he is asked about what he expects, his reply is almost always, “Nothing.”

As Krishna ji said,”Karm karo, fal ki chinta mat karo”(do your duty without being concerned about results).

I think that’s what all beginners do knowingly unknowingly.

What are your beginner’s luck experiences?

The Road of Inaction

Jul 12, 2020 | 5 comments

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“Dishes! Dishes! Dishes! I’m tired of doing the dishes. I’m the only one doing them. And all you guys do is eat and leave the dishes for me to wash. And these glasses? They are the worst. Every time someone has to drink water, they take a new glass. Have you seen the number of glasses I have to wash at the end of the day? Can’t the three of you take a glass in the beginning of the day and drink water from that glass only the entire day?”, my mom fumed after coming from the kitchen

“But mumma the glasses get mixed up.” I told her, somewhat scared for my life.

“Then just label the damn things.”

And so we did.

My younger sister – like the sweet kid she is – made labels with every family member’s name on it, and “laminated” them covering them entirely with transparent tape.

Fast forward to a few hours.

I was drinking water and looking at my designated glass and examining my label. The whole label was coated with tape, except a teeny little section at the left edge.

“Hey listen. You missed a little part here. Please tape it too na.” I said informing my sister.

“I’m not doing it now.”

“Fine.” And with that, I just let it be.

Even after withstanding a few tests of time, water and vim bar 🧼, I’m impressed that the labels managed to stay put without looking like they were holding onto the glass with all their might. However it wasn’t quite the same for that teeny little section. Too bad it was ripped off from his family at such a young age 😔

But it wasn’t his fault. To expect to be worn off is quite reasonable because it was the only part that wasn’t covered, isn’t it? Correct. When I leave the label just like that, without any protection, unlike the others, it is prone to the effects of soap and water.

Same goes for every other thing. When you work for something, it improves. And what happens when you don’t work on something? Common sense dictates it remains the way it is. Our mind equates work with progress, and no work with no progress. But it is not quite the situation. This is because the counterpart of progress is deterioration, and not no progress. What happens – when you don’t work on something – is that it starts to degrade. Even if you leave it as it is, it starts to go downhill.

It is the nature’s law that when you don’t work on or towards something, it is going to perish.

Because nothing ever remains the same. Things either get better or they get worse. They go up or they go down.

Consider anything that appears to be long-term. Take a car for example. If it is just sitting there, neglected in the parking lot and no one is cleaning it, or getting it serviced, it’s going to break down pretty soon.

And just like the car, our lives will break down if we don’t take charge of them and don’t take any action.

Even to keep something the same, you need to work for it.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Diqkw2IUwAAqAOp.jpg

If you are not working on it, then something else is. And it is not gonna turn things in your favor.

The universe is always doing its work. To keep things your way, you first need to work enough to keep the universe’s activities in check.

Moral of the story – Take care of things, situations and conditions. Take hold of them. Protect them. Otherwise, they’re gonna wear off and you shouldn’t be surprised because you were the one who failed to take action in the first place.

As Benjamin Franklin once said, “By failing to prepare you are preparing to fail.”

Don’t Waste Your Lives

Jul 5, 2020 | 5 comments

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Who am I?

What is life?

Why am I here?

Do I have some purpose, and if yes then what is it?

The quest for the answer of these questions is indestructible, my friends. And I – possibly just like you – haven’t found the assured answers to these soul searching questions. But I hope that you stick around so that when I do find them, I can share them with you.

Until then, I have a question for you. Are you here for eternity or is your time limited on this planet?

My answer would be that my time is limited to the course of my life. I have been granted with this gift of life, that may seem incredibly long, but is finite nevertheless. If it has a starting point, there’s got to be an ending point too.

I’m here to virtually grab you by your shoulders and yank you to an awareness, so that you can see what you are doing.

How many times have we paused, looked up and thought, “Why am I doing this? Do I like to do it? And if no, then why am I doing it?”, while doing our everyday actions. Most of us do the things we do because we’re told to do it and are continuing to do it mindlessly.

Actually, it’s not your or anybody else’s fault. We are told, again and again, generations after generations, that we must get good education, go to college and get a good job, and then we’ll be successful. This is absolutely fine if this is what you want or it helps you in any way to get closer to what you want. But if this is not what you want, I don’t see any reason there is to do those things.

And I think one of the people who get that they’ve got one life and it’s too short to not do the things they like, is Nuseir Yassin or Nas Daily as we popularly know him. He is a video blogger who created 1,000 daily 1-minute videos on Facebook under the page, Nas Daily. This guy wears the same type of t-shirt everyday which marks the percentage of life he’s lived, according to the average lifespan. Why? Because it’s a reminder for him. It reminds him that he’s already done with nearly one-third of his life. And that motivates him to make the remaining two-third of his life, GREAT. He just looks at his t-shirt and if he likes what he’s seeing then he continues it, otherwise he just stops it.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nas_Daily

If you’re thinking, ‘why study then, if I gotta do what I wanna do?’, I’d say have a look at it. Is it really not helpful to you? Aren’t you learning even a single thing that’s going to help you?

Even if you answer both of the questions as a no, it’s okay. But remember we’re social animals and we live in a society where people are fortunately prioritising skills over degrees. But the bad news is, the majority of them aren’t. As yet.

Don’t blow up 45 minutes of your time on just randomly scrolling through your mobile phone. Or gossiping about someone you have nothing to do with. Haven’t we all got bigger, better things to do? The ones we’ve thought of. Those are the ones we should be doing, not being stuck in a hamster wheel and getting nowhere. We only have so much life to live. Provided we live our life and pause it every once in a while, and not start another grind just to build that life which doesn’t even allow us to soak in the good things.

Life is like a video game. But instead of three or five lives, we just have one. Don’t risk it fighting off all the wrong demons.

And remember. We won’t get this again. Not the same thing. There won’t be a redo of this, no matter how hard we try.

P.S. I’m 21% done with my life, according to the average life expectancy in India. How much of your life have lived?