The Quarter Life Lesson
The whole wfh scenario has changed the dynamics of how we work and how we think.
This is a small anecdote that happened with me which I want to share with everyone.
The month is January of 2022.
If stats are to go by for my personal self, it is the first month of the year that I am the least productive in (yes I analyzed my last 2 year trends and deduced that I wrote the least amount of code and consumed the least art in January).
As luck would have it, I got a pretty cool offer for a new opportunity and decided to quit my current job to go into 3 months of notice period.
So much for analyzing trends of the last 2 years and I resign in the month that I am the least productive in.
Went into notice period. Started interviewing for more companies like crazy. Some interviews went good, some bad, some taught me things that I am grateful for.
Cut to 20 days later, I get a call from a friend about a mini trip to Varanasi in February. I was already frustrated and had hit a block after giving so many interviews and doing Leetcode, so I decided to go for it.
Varanasi | Benares | Banaras | Kashi is a city on the Ganges river in northern India that has a central place in pilgrimage, death, and mourning.
That city had been on my exploration list after watching the movie Masaan. And it was a short trip, 4 days to be exact.
We traveled from Kolkata to Varanasi by train. Reached there on a Saturday morning, checked into our AirBnb and started exploring the city.
The city is surreal, which evokes an emotion that is very hard to express in words. It was not religious, neither spiritual, but a sense of being free.
The boat ride on the Assi Ghat makes you realize the beauty of the city, as the boat passes so many Ghats at a stretch with each Ghaat probably having it’s own story of origin.
We explored the city on tuk-tuks, soaked in the old world charm of the city and ate a lot of street side food at the popular shops.The whole experience reminded me how in so less money, so much more can be done in most parts of India.
The 4 days passed in a flash and it was the day to leave. I had booked a flight back to Kolkata and was supposed to travel back alone. I was all at ease and charged up for the second half of my interview season.
Reached the airport on time and bought some touristy fridge magnets inside the airport to have a small token from the city as a memory.
Boarded the flight. I had a middle seat, and no one was sitting in either side of my seat. Some time passed by, a middle aged man came and took his seat beside me. A kid was sitting behind me and the window seat was still empty.
Just minutes before the takeoff, a staff person brought an old man in a wheelchair and he took the seat by the window. He made a call to his daughter just before the take off that he had boarded and would be reaching soon.
Imagine this, an aged old man to my right, a middle aged man maybe in his 40’s on my left and a kid behind me, crying like usual.
Right at the center of it, was me. Probably a sign from the universe, showing me how I was right at the center of life. I was not dependent on anyone like the old man, nor clueless like the kid. And definitely not gloomy like the middle aged man.
I am right at the epicenter of life where I can do whatever the fuck I want to do.
And I should stop living my life worrying about so many things, because one day even I would become the grim middle aged guy and eventually the dependent old man.
Took this as a sign and will never forget this poetic sweet coincidence that the universe played out to teach me a lesson to be always grateful and enjoy every moment to its fullest.
