Connecting

No, I am not talking about your phones or your latest wifi connection. No, I am not even talking about talking in itself or about public speaking.

With technological advancement, they say human society has advanced too. They say we have evolved. They say, we speak our minds better, clearer and we have sound opinions and ideas of our own about this world we live in.... But alas, NO, I am not talking about that either.

Connection:

The Cambridge dictionary defines "connection" as the "The act of joining or being joined to something or someone else."

To connect:

There must have come a point in your life, where you suddenly met a person, completely out of the blue and you connected.

It may not have involved any particular conversation or any certain line of thought. This connection may not even have involved any sort of conversation at all. What I am indicating towards here is that comfortable space shared by two people (may be more) in which there is a special feeling of being together. Even though it is just the acceptance of the other person, or the comfort of their presence, for that one moment, and for that very reason, you do not feel the urge to speak, or explain yourself, or even explain that feeling.

Here I am trying to explain this feeling itself for instance, and coming up with words making no sense at all.

No, it doesn't have to be Love:

Connection here may refer to a quiet evening you spent with a couple of friends on the college lawn, cracking jokes till your tummy hurt. It could also be that special bond you formed with those strangers on the train, exchanged addresses with them or even phone numbers. Connection could also be finding a like minded person on a journey you initially decided to make by yourself.

What's special about it?

The bond in itself. The other day, I was on the auto, trying to make it to class before the last minute (as usual), and we got stuck in heavy Calcutta monsoon-time traffic (as usual again). It took us passengers approximately 2 minutes to get to know each other and share our honest opinions about the blasted weather, the blasted traffic and the blasted honking. From complaining about the regular traffic, to discussing puja vacations and how we planned to shop for it, we lost track of time. There were 2 middle aged ladies, there was a college guy and there was I. 

After some time, all the blasted honking, us being late for various appointments and all the bad weather, started to seem so fundamentally small. 

When I finally got to my class, I remember having made some joke about how if we had stayed on the auto for long, we may even have exchanged numbers!

I don't know those people in reality. I don't even know if I'm ever going to see them again, or whether I'd even recognize them if i did see them again. All I know, is that when we Bengalis started complaining about our native land and all the woes it has brought to us, something clicked and we connected. (Not the most romantic line ever, I accept)

Moments to be treasured:

These connections are unreal. You may remember some of them for a long time, or you may not even notice them happening. It is sad to see that people would rather stress on immediate goals and ambitions, than take little pleasure in these everyday connections that we form and bond over. 

We humans were programmed to socialize. Loneliness isn't a lovely feeling (Though being in a crowd all the time can be suffocating too) 

My point here is, (And what I'm really trying to say, for one) that stop, breathe, look around and really, truly, actually see what is happening around you. For everything will keep on happening, whether you look at it and recognize it, or not. Why miss out on these little pieces of heaven that just came your way by chance?

It takes a smart person to grab an opportunity, but it takes a wise person to recognize that precise moment when everything "just clicks together" and makes life a different and better place to be living in.