Connection: This life or the last?

Ever wondered why sometimes we meet people who seem so familiar that you instantly gel? I believe in karma and past lives. And what happened to me this weekend only made all my beliefs stronger. This weekend was a whole three day wedding affair. My best friend was getting married and I did not foresee how somethings were going to change my life as well.

For the first time I felt completely at home. None of the people at the brides house seemed strangers to me. It was like a dream and everyone there seemed to be a vivid part of my subconscious brain. Thanks to this, I felt reality was more hazy than usual. All this was nothing. The presence of one particular person there made complete sense to me. Though we hadn't ever met, I felt like we knew each other for ages...or maybe lifetimes!

Was this possible? I didn't need much of an introduction to actually start feeling comfortable with him. Any body can misinterpret what I am saying right now...but it was just perfect! Too perfect to be true. For heavens sake I didn't even know his second name. We looked out for each other, we spoke petty things, we insulted each other as though it was our birth right but we didn't realise that we were reliving something that might have been something in the past. A friendship or a relationship I don't know what!

I choose to turn off my logical brain and enjoy this beautiful feeling. There was not a single doubt nor an iota of insecurity in my body for me to not let my defenses down. I looked at him with eyes of familiarity and I was sure he understood something too. Nobody could possibly release themselves from these chains of security and perfect understanding. The reason why I am trying to make it sound so negative is because it was so powerful and overwhelming that anyone would succumb to it! I felt so special around him that I forgot I belonged to another family to whom I must return! (On reading this for the second time...it sounds weird but I think only he will understand)

We had our own life and our own commitments but this was so different. A connection made for no reason. A bond beyond rationalising. We didn't speak much after the last meeting but I am not built to contain emotions inside myself and have to express it to live in peace. I picked up my phone and messaged his mom(Whom I love more:P ). Destiny or coincidence I will let you decide but he replied! I was jumping around like a crazy woman and then it started....

We realised over the next many hours of non stop texting that all the speculations I made about us, he made them too! Nothing is better than missing someone so bad (Why should I miss someone I just met? Now you understand why I threw logic out before I started writing this blog) and realising that they missed you too! We texted all night as though there was no tomorrow and with both our guards down completely. From an acquaintance I hardly knew about, he got promoted to one of the most important people in my life!

They say the first few days of a knew relationship is when people talk the most...but ours was different. We knew this was not our first meeting! At least it didn't seem to me like it was! This life or the last one I don't know but I knew him really well. I am sure we will just not ever get fed up of each other. I managed to forge a new relationship that made my life complete! Why will I let life go back to being incomplete!?

Stereotypes: Imaginary Or Real?

There was a session at my workplace on stereotypes and similarities. What the hell I thought! Is it real that we meet people in life who are similar to other people from our past? I didn't want to believe that nobody was unique. He spoke about how there are a maximum of 150 stereotypes that an average man has seen in his life. That was spoken on Friday and obvious fact is that the thinker in me had a whole weekend to think about how many stereotypes I had met in my life. Alas! I was shocked.

I made a conclusion. The conclusion is that there is no minimum or maximum number of stereotypes in the world. It was just equal to the number of people we knew really well. People included in that list are family(closest ones: parents and siblings), best of friends, worst of enemies and miscellaneous(every person who had touched your life in ways you never knew)! Voila! I had my list of people stereotypes.

Is there any human being who has lived a life without making the statement “Gosh! You are so similar to another person I know/knew”? I am sure it is impossible to have not drawn similarities. It is the amusing function of the brain to connect unconnected dots. I think I also understood why the brain does that. Known devil is better than unknown angel.

They say that the most complex(a.k.a intelligent) of people and the most complicated of organisms are shy creatures. Hence the introvert brain(I don't know which side of MY BRAIN is an introvert!! Exceptions exist I guess!) in man does not want to relive a torment similar to the first day of school. What about First Day at school? Too many people equals too many new faces equals Stereotype Sample Generation- First Cut.

After a certain number of years the social side of the brain turns off and enters into Introvert Mode and starts mapping people to older stereotypes. This makes interaction with the new faces much more at ease because something tries fooling the brain(I am not a doctor but it is the soothing hormone. Natural pacifier! Docs please comment! :P) saying it is a familiar breed(already identified group) of people.

Once we place people in their respective segments, we start judging and predicting their behaviour. Or should I say we hope that what we predict from past experiences only happens and hope that we are not rudely surprised. In my life I have about 20 types of people I have met. To facilitate recognition first thing I do, I ask for birthdays. Zodiacs!

There are just 12 zodiacs but they help in placing people under s broader classification of people. Apart from all these categories, when I bump into another similar being of some category, I realise that they follow a similar pattern in perception to some emotions, attitude and appearances and the most important is that their family environment and choice of parters is also similar!

After pondering about all this over the weekend, I feel like I am the 18 year old me sitting amidst the many people who touched my life in different ways. I hope I don't do anything stupid like running and hugging them or something similar! If changes and differences are inevitable...is similarity escapable? It depends on how much you miss/like the person you associate the others to!!