It’s quite surreal how the expanse of people we touch in a lifetime remains so limited. We brush up against a handful and conjecture it to be our world. Around 8.1 billion people on this planet, and our lives are going to cross paths with only a few. Moreover, only fewer people would be deemed important.

So weird if you think of it. It has to be somebody’s immaculate plan—a path that we are supposed to crawl on, a story that we are bound to lead. The exciting things in our lives are defined by what board we have been strategically placed on.

One could be in a war-struck zone, leading a constantly agitated life, or be living in peace in a liberated land without any real threat. One could be utterly destitute, stuck in the muck of a menial job owing to their forefathers, or one could be basking in affluence with inherited wealth. While some could be navigating without purpose, others could be so sure of it that they wouldn’t see anything else. Each individual learning through the examples they have been molded in, reliving their idea of a stable society, influenced by written texts, forging rules from history for survival, and leading a life handed over to them by an unseen force. Continuing it from the womb of natural selection and guided by the hands of fate.

I think it has to be about experiences. There is no logical explanation for souls traversing a planet (or maybe countless others) wearing exoskeletons they know nothing about unless they wind up under its skin. I also believe that the souls carry their intelligence or maybe a part of it instead of getting cooked up in a furnace of random organisms. Yes, and karma makes a lot of sense. How else does a new life get defined?

Our lives, if you think of it, are only heavily influenced by a limited quota of people we meet. Meeting only a swarm in school or college, a bunch of them in any of the common interests groups, at work, or a rehab group, and to think that our entire life only revolves around them is a limiting stance. The truth is, choosing to have a person in your life is only an interaction away. Choosing to limit your societal span too is only a wall away. The moment you raise one, you close chapters you believed once to be pivotal.

You can know a lot of people in your life, sure, but there will be only a few people who you would peg as constants. Even that is an unconscious choice you make owing to an unseen energy that keeps you around them and them around you. It is unimaginable that, even in one whole life, even when you become very famous, you are still going to have only a few who you would utterly trust. Despite the thousands of lives you touch, there will still be not so many that you would invite to your private party of contemplations.