Ripple effects of random conversations

Embrace Wellness
Nov 5 · 4 min read
Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash

What would be life if we didn’t meet people enough, didn’t laugh on nonsensical jokes enough, didn’t commit mistakes enough, didn’t learn from those mistakes enough?

It is known to everybody that small talks produce long conversations, which in turn give birth to either agreements or arguments. However, lately I discovered how a little mindfulness and open mind during the conversations can save you time and money.

I had been planing a trip to Las Vegas for about a week and due to my timing i.e. holiday season, prices were high for almost everything.

Photo by Daniil Vnoutchkov on Unsplash

However, after tons of permutations and combinations, I reached to dates that were less pricey and convenient for me and my husband. So, we made up our minds, set the budget aside and were just a step away from booking the flight tickets and hotel.

In the meanwhile, we happened to go out for lunch on a Sunday afternoon with couple of my husband’s friends. We were having some random conversations at the table…the ones about movie stars, jobs, views on buying property and car, having a pet, increase in electricity bills etc. Then, came the topic of what we were planing to do about our trip since our friends knew about it, and we mentioned about the plan along with what we were thinking to do next. One of our friend just casually mentioned, “Hey, we went there during summers and we covered all of these places in a single trip. Vegas was just four to five hours away by road from our first destination. It was fun”. It must be noted that their first destination was part of the trip we were thinking to plan after the Vegas trip.

Photo by Kace Rodriguez on Unsplash

We had another set of random talks after that, had desserts🍨 (which I didn’t like) and came home. After a while, I decided to book the tickets and hotel. Just when I was about to do the payment, I had an idea. Instead of having two trips in two months, why not take substantial number of days off in single month and cover all these destinations. This way, we would avoid paying for two way flight tickets and would commute by road from one destination to another. I had a discussion with my husband and we decided to ditch this Vegas trip and club it with the next one, which we were anyway going to have the next month.

I know, it sounds simple…so what? You might be saving few bucks, big deal?! It is big deal!

We need to measure the savings in terms on percentage to have a true understanding and realization of discount and saving. What I narrated above was just an example. Imagine how big the consequences could be if it was involving bigger and more serious issues!

The bits and pieces we hear out and talk in our random and “not too important” conversations with strangers in trains, taxi lines, restaurants and other public places are “not that unimportant”, if we start paying attention to silly chats and the ideas involved behind those chats. Likewise, two years ago, I was looking for an apartment in Mumbai and talked about my hunt to my colleagues at work so that they could suggest me options if they knew any.

Again, during our lunch hours, one friend of my friend came and sat with us and started talking about how difficult it is to shift to another city with a school-going kid and the changes the shift demands in terms of lifestyle, food habits, work habits etc. I got to know that she used to live close to my work location and she is looking for someone to fill her apartment after she would be gone. And…BANG! I found my new home. JUST LIKE THAT!

I have so many such examples from my personal life where small talks, random conversations have given me immensely important and LIFE SAVING information. Sometimes, we are so much consumed by our routine that when we see an imminent conversation, all we want is to run away from there because in our head we think…I don’t have time for this…I have bigger things to think and act upon…urghh!!…now we are going to talk about beaches! Seriously? Etc etc.

Such is the beauty of human interactions and inter-personal skills!

I wrote this to address those who feel a paucity of propensity towards being part of random conversations with friends, friends of friends, strangers, family relatives etc., because we feel that is killing our time. But hey, what are we anyway gaining if we are losing on important life changing information coming from such small talks in our lives?!

What would be life if we didn’t meet people enough, didn’t laugh on nonsensical jokes enough, didn’t commit mistakes enough, didn’t learn from those mistakes enough?

Let’s connect, interact, learn and appreciate each other’s ideas💡, opinions and extract the useful bits and reject the rest.

Embrace Wellness

Written by

Aiming at living a meaningful and purposeful life! Eating healthy yet “good to taste” food. Enjoying yoga! Exploring the secret laws of Universe.

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