Meera

Meera was the third daughter of her parents who were both lawyers and a sister to an established lawyer and a successful aviation engineer. Over the course of her life she had been a witness to a lot of celebrations and parties in the name of her eldest sister Ahana, the established lawyer and the other elder sister Shyla, the established aviation engineer, but none for her. She would feel anxious thinking about her life and her future. Her father often caught her off guard in a state of disparity, transfixed in her dreams. Meera was not a dumb girl, just a school girl trudging through her options in life and making choices that were shaping her life. She was full of admiration for her sisters and wanted to be like them, smart and successful, but to be anything like them she had to do what she dreaded the most – academics!

Meera didn’t enjoy studying. Perhaps anyone her age felt the same about school books. But with Meera it was different. She genuinely didn’t see eye to eye with what the books wanted to convey to her. She would often tell her father, “So how is calculus helping your day to day life? Not at all? I know right! Then why should I learn it in the first place?” Meera was however very fascinated by one thing that was taught in school – computer and programming! She knew that if she would do something in life it would be coding. And that was the beginning.

Meera had a bunch of friends who were nothing like her. They were all “cool” and “smart” – words that gen-z used to describe people who were outgoing and confident. She often felt out of place considering she was a timid “geek”. She dreamt of having a boyfriend like the rest of her friends and laughing a lot like them. She wanted to be able to gossip and share interesting stories about her life like her friends. Meera’s life was basically mundane.

But one day, something out of the ordinary happened which brought a new ray of hope to her life, after which her life didn’t follow the normative path anymore. Meera received a letter.

It read:

Dear Meera,

I hope this letter finds you at the most opportune time that brings you love and light in your life.

I know you, even though you might not know me yet. And even though you’re feeling very peculiar about this, please read through the whole letter anyway and let me show you why this letter could alter your life for you.

Let’s see if I really know you first. You love both of your parents but your dad a little more. You have been wanting to get a pixie haircut since you hit puberty. Your favourite colours are black and white and anything that violates the monochrome in real life is too tacky. But the virtual world is more beautiful with the neon lights. You feel roses are overrated and would easily say yes to someone who feels so too. You play video games a lot but outdoor games require tact and socialising, and you are bad at both, so you avoid it. You like computer codes and wish that you could learn more than what school has been teaching you.

You feel weird most of the time, isn’t it? You wish you were as cool as Shanaya. You call yourself a geek but not geek enough to be like Shyla. You wish you enjoyed reading so that you could be someone like Ahana. Sometimes you question your sexuality because the rest of your friends judge you for not having a boyfriend yet. Sometimes you feel you would fail miserably in life and just wouldn’t be able to stand up to your own expectations, let alone someone else’s. You’re not scared you would disappoint Daddy, but you’re scared that you will be the only daughter to do so. The pressure of performing as good as yours sisters sometimes weighs you down. You are leading a monotonous life, much like your colour choices in real life. But don’t you think that you like the virtual more because it is colourful? Don’t you think you could let in more colours in your real life too?

Meera was astounded and dumbfound reading the letter! All of it was so true. And it was not possible for someone to know so much to know about her because she never spoke about herself that much. In fact she wanted a boyfriend to share these intricate details of her life. And as silly as the idea seemed, she refrained even more from indulging romantically with anyone. So who could this be? Meera sat up to read more.

It might seem difficult to you at first, but talk more, even if it feels weird and silly at times. Open up to someone. Live your life outdoors. But that doesn’t mean you relinquish your love for virtual life. I wont judge your choices. Nobody should. If you like it, you like it in the virtual world better. But make something of it. Take some more of sunshine and eat more of fibrous food. Yeah, at this point I am pretty sure you think it is your Mom writing this letter. But no, it is me, after I have become a Mom. I think all of us daughters become our moms when we grow up.

Meera smiled. She continued reading.

 Let me talk about myself now. I realised very late in life in that I alone can bring in a change into my life by putting in some effort and changing my lifestyle. Nobody but I can understand your love for coding and science. Science fascinates us in multitude ways that one cannot describe. So once I realised that my life had gone way beyond boring and mundane, I sucked it up and got up on my feet, fed up of everything and in desperate need of inviting some colours much like the colours in the virtual world.

I enrolled myself into a coding institute to exploit my love for codes. I knew I wanted to go ahead with computer programming as a career in my life. I joined a company and another. But none of them excited me. Trust me, I switched a lot! I spent a lot of time glued to the computer screen to get better at what I do. I wanted to make a change in the world. Eventually I learnt of this laboratory wherein scientists were experimenting on a very interesting concept which involved the science of coding too – Time travel through virtual applications! That very moment I knew I had to be a part of it. And I took it!

If you are reading this, our experiment has been successful. Meera, I am you from the future. I am writing this letter to you because I know what you are feeling. Meera, life hasn’t been easy. But I am sure an easy life would have been boring too, much like yours – with no drama, no hassle, no scuffle, and no issues. So I made my life interesting by enhancing my appetite for risk. I took a lot of risky decisions in life and I am so glad that they didn’t lead me to a dumpster. It doesn’t matter what people think of you, because if you can have faith in yourself, you are already invincible. You can achieve anything you want if you believe in your goals and have faith in yourself. I know this because I trusted myself with my decisions which not only brought success but also confidence in me. I am happy working with these scientists and unfolding the miracles of science. We have made things possible through our relentless effort and labour. You can too.  All you need is a push, just like I did, and I am here for you. I want you to know that you are kind and delicate, capable and talented. I want you to follow your instinct and make a move in your life. Usher the change you want to manifest and you’ll do wonders!

Love,

Yourself from the future, Meera.