What made me an EXTROVERT?

In my case, I think, it was the college. College has made me a lot more extrovert than I was during my senior secondary. In my sr secondary school we didn't have many opportunities to converse with girls or people from very different background. The people in my life were largely northern Rajasthani boys.

In college, initially my interest in sciences and then in politics, music, others’ culture, rural women's issues and spirituality made me converse with the people that I never had courage to talk to otherwise. I developed this thing of debating in open (with whoever in my friend circle I found was free) on variety of issues, theories, philosophies, ideologies & lifestyles. I love it when something that I considered strong, true or good is broken with arguments by the person in front. And in parallel, I see, all this revealed some tiny secrets of mine to the people in my circle & I no more was worried about small things about me going public or people labeling me as certain kind of person. I had no problem with such outcrops as long as I found myself knowing the unknown on the way.

To be able to get an ambience where you can overlap your life with people from very different background and culture…is a sort of boon. Merely conversing for a few minutes open heartedly with a few of such new people can break many of your past conditionings & pre conceived notions.

Personally for me, when I dropped the idea “what will they/ he / she think about me?" while starting a conversation with my (new) friends, was a liberating feeling. In this, there's possibility of much more happening than always sitting in an corner with only your mind and not touching the rest of the world fearing “they might judge you."

And on the path, life blessed me with opportunities to be closely touched by some truly talented & beautiful- heart - people.

If we bump into each other at some railway station or market someday, i am telling you, it's nearly impossible for me not to talk to u if we had sat together for some conversation at some point in past. Sometimes I don't even need that much. You were my class/lab /PG/ college mate, that's a good enough reason to talk to you on a 30 hrs train journey.

Extrovertness for me is caring for people & things other than yourself. And this at many occasions, I believe, can't be done without an honest & open hearted conversation with the persons that might not necessarily be very 'close' to you.

It's about making peace with your image in the minds of people around you whose lives are constantly overlapping with yours. After all you can't live here all by yourself or with the support of just the ones whom you consider your 'close ones'.

I respect the introvertness in individuals. They might not feel need of this much extra talking or mingling with new people & are happy with themselves. Or whichever way it's, we should respect everyone's ways as long as it's not harmful for other lives and environment.

Pic : my birds graduating. The vigyan snaataks.

🌳

VKJ)