I recently took a trip to Kodaikanal, where I went with my good friend Apurva. The trip was organised by his friend, who took along a contingent of his friends, including Apurva and by extension, me. This was a unique trip for me, because it was a large group(16 people), and I didn’t know any of them.
All my trips so far have been with pretty well defined groups. Sure, the odd friend of a friend may come along, but at least a few people on the trip have been my own friends, who I know and love, or a large group travel where you sorta know everyone, like school/college trips or family trips.
This meant I could do one of my favourite things, explore a new identity.
No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.
- Heraclitus
Being around people you already know reinforces your identity. They know you as they do, and you behave as they know you. But your identify is always in flux. You become a new person each day, each minute. Your identity now is a weighted sum of all your identities before. The changes are incremental, but over time they add up. That’s what leads to people drifting apart. one day you wake up and realise, Damn, we are so different now.
New people are an opportunity to test the most updated version of your identity with a weight of one. As someone named Kabir, I am familiar with being called by the names of other Kabirs. Whether th