Defining life.. between the past and future possibilities

 This morning, while chatting with Sweety about our usual serving of casual existential dread, I blurted out something that made both of us laugh and pause"

“The difference between what we could have done in the past and what we can do now — is our life.”

Sweety said "It sounds oddly deep for a weekday morning". I too thought so especially around breakfast time. But the more I think about it, the more it feels true. It’s not just a poetic punchline; it’s a gentle (and slightly dramatic) reminder that the past is a museum — a nice place to visit, but not where you want to set up your sofa.

We all carry around our "Greatest Hits of Regret", be it the job we didn’t take, the message we drafted and never sent, the gym membership we paid for and never used. These “could-have” moments come back to haunt us like old WhatsApp forwards — usually around midnight, just when we’re trying to sleep. But here’s the twist: while we can’t time-travel and fix those moments, we do get a fresh start every single morning. That tension between “then” and “now”? That’s where the plot thickens, character arcs happen, and wisdom sneaks in between grey hairs.

Think of it this way: “what we could have done” is like staring at an old map, full of routes we never took. It’s wishful, sometimes heavy. But “what we can do now”?  That’s where life actually happens. Our power doesn’t lie in rewinding the past — it lies in pressing play now. It’s in choosing action over overthinking, showing up instead of spiraling in “what ifs.”

So here’s the truth in one line: Life is lived in the space between hindsight and intention. 

This reminds me of the song from the movie Anand - Zindagi Kaisi hai paheli hai! Kabhi yeah hasaye, Kabhi yeah rulaye.