Skimming our little journal of choices

She wanted to be a journalist when she lost the emotional prime time debate with her mother.

Cricket was indeed his religion when he was worshipping IIT-JEE books.

She was made to load guns in the army but ended up loading syringes in the hospital.

He struck a perfect chord with music when dire circumstances hit his family.

These aren’t the stories of success or failures but tales of choices.
Choices that we end up making, choices that make us.

Between life and death, there is a library,' she said. 'And within that library, the shelves
go on forever. Every book provides a chance to try another life you could have lived. To
see how things would be if you had made other choices . . . Would you have done

anything different, if you had the chance to undo your regrets.

An excerpt from the novel "The Midnight Library", which explores these fundamental yet
existential questions. A girl Nora travels through various lives undoing her past mistakes,
choosing different career options for herself, searching for a version of life that makes her truly happy.

Another parallel is the 2007 film "Into the wild", where a man challenges long-lived society
norms like degree, job, money and makes a choice to seek companionship in nature and self-discovery. Too late, we realise that the story wasn’t just about the adventure but the
introspection of what was lost.

We shall talk about Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, an interactive movie of its kind. It’s where you
are in control of the choices the story character makes. Be it small things like breakfast cereal or
life-altering choices. Alas! We end up with five bad endings for the poor soul, no matter how well
calculated our decisions are.

In the end, we are left with questions. Do the best life choices always drive to the best
destinations? Or are they just different branches of the same tree??

Many times, these choices are more humane and challenging. Letting go or carrying the
grudges. Being there or parting ways. A quest for more or satisfying your soul.

Carrying the book of regrets,

Leading through the doors of uncertainties.

Turning the pages of past,

Hoping to get light through the darkened room.

We feel lost in this library of choices,

Seeking a listener to our podcast of decisions.

Expecting a little worth given,

To this little journal of our lives.

You decide the best college for your future and end up cursing a 9-5 job. You decide your best
people, only to get betrayed one fine day.

You spend hours selecting a movie to watch and end up yawning in the interval : )

We really can’t write the best choice in our little journal. Isn’t it? All we can do is play the
prediction game at our level best. We hit it out of the park sometimes; sometimes, we go for a

duck. Ultimately we are left with two choices - keep turning those past pages or focus on writing
the new chapter!

“The only way to learn is to live.”