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A Sign from the Universe

It was like a scene from a Telugu movie song – wherever I looked, I only saw her name. It could not be mere coincidence. I remember a quote from a book I had once read. “When you really want something, the whole universe conspires to help you achieve it.” That was it, the universe was telling me something – it was a sign – there cannot be another explanation.

If you are bemused, dear reader, why this blog has taken a flowery turn all of a sudden, do not worry. The above paragraph describes my thought process when I was infatuated with a girl for the first time (at that time, I was convinced it was love).

Perhaps, it helped the universe that the girl I was infatuated with had a rather common name and therefore, it was easy for it to point it out to me.

I think this is something we all do. If you're thinking about something or someone, we start seeing references to it everywhere. This is called apophenia, the human tendency to find 'meaning' or patterns from random events.

Apophenia is part of a larger phenomenon called confirmation bias. People see only what they want to see, people consume only the information that supports their views and opinions.

If you are a lunar landing denier, irrespective of how much strong evidence is presented to you to show that humans indeed did land on the moon, you will not accept it. You will find some small suspicious evidence as 'proof' of the conspiracy, challenging your opponents to explain this.

So, the next time you're infatuated with someone (or maybe it IS love?), don't convince yourself that the universe is telling you something. Or maybe you should. Don't we all need some help with our self-confidence sometimes?

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