Patterns, Planets & Possibilities

Some evenings carry a quiet current, as if they were always going somewhere, and you were simply the last to know.

In this episode, I walk you through a real night: a concert, a saree, and a stubborn resistance to going at all, that slowly unravelled into an unexpected encounter with a stranger on a Mumbai highway. What seemed like coincidence began, in hindsight, to feel almost inevitable.

Why do we reach for astrology in moments like these? Is it the hunger for answers, or the deep comfort of believing that something, somewhere, is moving in our favour?

Planets? Patterns? Or just hope, doing its quiet, persistent work. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:10

Welcome to the third episode of Fireflies Armonasri. This episode is about a night where everything could have gone normally, but it didn't. That simple decision led to a chain of events that felt too aligned to ignore. Do planets really guide us or do we create meaning out of the patterns we want to believe? Listen along. Every time the world feels a bit worried or anxious, human beings, be it on the eastern or the western part of the globe, they start looking at the planets in the sky and in their personal charts and in their sun signs and in their tarot cards, wondering which angry or beneficent planet is going to dictate their future. A new year begins, a new world breaks out, a plane crashes, you know, anxiety-inducing things happen and astrology surges shoot through the roof. The impact of astrology or other fortune-telling arts has been such that the main advertising campaign of Netflix this year was inspired by tarot cards. Netflix actually recommends movies as per your Zodiac sign. Astrologers have millions of followers across platforms, and the modern ones are actually logical and interesting, and they they do not engage in fear mongering. Most of them use their platforms as an educational space, and frankly, they're fun to follow. This episode is about an incident in my life which really felt like some celestial body was involved in the flow of that evening. It was the end of November of 2024. My Instagram feed at that time was filled with astrologers talking about the Venus transit in my sign. I'm a Capricorn, Sun and Rising. And towards the end of the month, Venus would make some kind of positive aspect with Uranus. Venus rules love, money, leisure, basically the soft joys of life. And Uranus is uh the god of sudden things and surprises. So most of them were interpreting it as some kind of sudden gain of money, a surprise romantic evening, a lottery, you know, where money, love, leisure, and surprise elements come together in a positive way. You get the idea. I was feeling none of it though. The last week of November was emotionally heavy. I was working and sobbing and working and sobbing for the most part of it. So 30th November rolls in, it was a Saturday. Back in August of 2024, when my introvert self was feeling a bit more outgoing, in a sudden spurt of energy, I had booked a ticket to attend a Repa and Vishhal Bharat Baj concert, which was supposed to happen on 30th November evening. The show was at 7 in the evening, and I was working till 3 p.m. in the afternoon. And I was just not feeling like going to the concert. But the tickets were taken, I had already invested money, and then if I cancel, then I would feel guilty. When I had bought this ticket, I had this entire evening planned in my head. I bought a sari and I had thought that I'll I'll dress up and I'll attend the musical evening, you know, looking all pretty. Rika Paradaj has sung a lot of Sufi songs so the attire would have matched the vibe. Up to the afternoon of the concert, I was already feeling emotionally drained. I had work pending and I was on the verge of cancelling the plan altogether. But then I told myself that I do this every time, cancel fun things for my comfort. So this time around, I will push myself and I'll go. I almost gave up on the idea of wearing a sari because it was too much of an effort. And the blouse was looking very hideous. Still, I stuck to the plan, wore a sari, went ahead, called my ogre, and went to the concert. Honestly, the concert was super fun. Reka and Rishal Bharadwaj, they are a married couple and they are brilliant singers and they're great artists. So they have this very cute, romantic, sweet energy. And it was one of the most fun evenings of my life. I'll remember this evening forever, but for other reasons also. So the show ended at 10 p.m. Now to understand the evening better, I will keep giving location, um, locational, cultural, and timing context as I narrate it. Okay. So it was 10 in the night, and I had planned to take a cab back home. The event was at Shanvokanand uh hall in Mumbai, which is not that far away from the local railway station of Cyan. Now, local trains in Mumbai are like the subway or the tube. It's the quickest, cheapest, and easiest mode of transport. I'm a Mumbai local regular, but since I was wearing a sari, I didn't want to navigate the stairs in and out of the station. So a cab it is. But it was a weekend, no words available to book. I thought it's the search from the concert. So let's wait for 10-15 minutes. I'll try and open a cab again in 10-15 minutes. I started walking towards the highway to the main road from the Shanmokanan hall. It was fairly crowded. Um, Mumbai is never like without crowd, it's it's always there, there are people always there. I kept on checking for Uber and other app-based caps, um, but no luck. It was starting to get cold. I was wearing just a silksari. The 15 minutes turned to 45 minutes. I'm randomly walking on the road trying to get a cap. I even went to a survey to get a sandwich as I as I was really hungry. But the server was taking a lot of time, so I just left. It's almost 11 in the night now. The usual non-app-based cabs, the regular cabs, uh Kalipei taxis of Mumbai, they were also not available. I was not able to hail a single cab that night till 11 p.m. At last, at last at 11.5, one cab driver who had previously said no to me almost 10 minutes ago agreed to drop me to Thane. I was still hungry, but now I just wanted to go to home after walking for almost an hour. The ride started, and we had just crossed the Cyan Bridge and onto the Eastern Express Highway when I noticed there was a phone on my seat. I was sitting in the back seat. I told the driver, and the driver said the previous passenger must have left it, and he kept the phone with himself near his on his dashboard. Then the phone started ringing, and the driver requested me to take the call as he was driving and tell the person on the call on the phone that he will return the phone when he completes his shift. Now, mobile taxi drivers are pretty chilled and trustworthy people, so I had no issues doing this. I uh I answered the call. There was a man on the other end and he was sounding hassled. I mean, it's natural. Anyone would be anyone would be hassled after losing their phone. So I kind of told him that it's alright, it's alright, no worries, don't don't stress. Uh this cab driver is saying that he will return the phone once he drops me off. So, and you can collect it on on his return trip. But this man was not ready for it. He told me that his father is sick and all the documentation and access of multiple apps are in are on this phone, and he doesn't trust that the taxi driver would return the phone to him. He was speaking to me in English all the uh, you know, during the entire conversation. He was kind of glad that the phone is with me, that he's he was not trusting the cab driver. I was trying to assure him that no, no, the cab driver would return it to him. Mentally, I was thinking, why am I getting dragged into this? But then I was feeling bad for him because his father was hospitalized, and he was generally, you know, sounding worried. So he asked me to keep the phone with me and he will collect it from me. I mean, honestly, that sounded risky, so I said no. The time now is almost 1120, and the cold is setting in, and I'm hungry, and this guy is constantly ringing his phone. I'm in the cab and cruising at on a fairly empty Eastern Express Highway. This guy calls again and says that he has got a friend and he's on a bike and he's not that far away. If I can just wait for 10 minutes, just 10 minutes, he can come and pick the phone up. He again brought his hospitalized father into conversation, so I I just agreed. I asked the driver to park at the side of the road and just let's just wait. Even the driver was not that happy, but I was like, okay, fine, it's okay, let's let's help this guy. So it was a well-lit area with decent traffic, so safety was not a concern, but it was already, you know, 11 25 30, and I still had at least an hour commute left. So we waited. In the meantime, this guy's phone was constantly pinging with Instagram alerts, bank notifications, multiple app alerts. I couldn't access anything, the it the screen was locked, but multiple notifications were coming on the lock screen. And I guess seeing those Instagram notifications, something popped in my head. I suddenly thought about the astrologer, the Instagram astrologer. And oh my god, Venus and Uranus, love and surprises. Oh my god, am I gonna meet the love of my life? Is this going to be my meat cute story? My heartbeat started racing. Nothing this dramatic has ever happened to me. I mean, uh, you know, plus the stars and planets seem to be in my favor today. But my very practical mind gently scolded this hopeful side and dragged my focus back to the time. It's almost 11.40 now. I'm hungry, I'm feeling cold, it's November after all. I told the driver, if these guys do not come in the next five minutes, let's leave. The phone rang again. He said, Um, don't worry, sister, we are just one traffic signal signal away. I'm I'm really sorry for all your trouble. And my mind goes, Sister, sister! I mean, it didn't mean anything, but I kind of saw the meat cute story evaporate in front of my eyes. Around 11:45, a bike stops next to the cab. Two men in their 30s get down. It's the phone guy and his friend. I honestly don't remember their faces, but he looked like one of the millions of faces that we see along our commute and do not pay much attention to. Still, somehow he didn't he didn't felt like like a stranger. I did not step out of the cab and I gave the phone to him through the window. He profusely apologized for all the trouble, and the first thing that he did was that he gave me a five-star. It's a chocolate bar like Snickers. Remember, I was hungry, so this was a welcome relief, and it just changed my mood. I was again in a happy space. He then offered his hand to me to shake, like, you know, to say thank you. And when and when I reached out, he he held my hand like you hold a hand of a friend. There was a different level of familiarity. He then took my hand and kissed it softly, and then gently placed his other hand on the side of my face. Um, you know, like how you bless someone, how you gently hold a loved one, a friend, a child, very softly. For context, people in Mumbai are not touchy-feely types. We usually keep our distance from each other. Apart from involuntary, uh, apart from involuntarily getting squished in a in the local trains, people don't touch either each other like this. Still, all of it felt very natural. He told me that he has a niece, he showed me her picture, which was on the lock screen, said the phone is was not that expensive, but it has important documents in it, and that's why he insisted on collecting it. He told me that he runs a food business or something like that, some business. I don't remember exactly. But in five minutes, he told me a lot about his evening, his family, like he was updating me, like it was important to update me. All this time I'm inside the cab and we are talking through the window. Then he went and spoke to the driver, gave him some money for all the trouble and the effort, came back and said thank you again. And he was about to leave. At the last moment, I reached out, extending my hand. And again, he held my hand like he was like how you hold someone's hands when you're about to arm wrestle, you know, that kind of hold. Like when you're pulling someone out of uh um, you know, on a mountain. He was holding my hand, and I don't know what happened, what came inside me, and I just asked, Are you alright? I do not know where that question came from, but I saw something change in his eyes, and all his hyper anxious energy that just went away, like something centered in him, and he replied in a very calm, soft, stable voice, yes, yes, yes, I'm okay. I'm alright. And a smile formed on his face. We were looking at each other's eyes. He again placed his hand on my face, gently touching the side of my cheek, said thank you again, and he left. I swear I felt like I know this person. You know how you feel when you meet someone and they carry this uncanny familiarity. Like our nervous systems, you know, they know each other. My captain continued, and I was thinking about the familiarity of an energy, his need to update me about his life. I mean, he was a complete stranger and he told me so many things about his life. The soft, gentle assurance that he gave me that he's alright. I I can still remember the sound of his voice, him saying that, yes, yes, I am alright. It felt like like this soul had traveled with me in some other life, and um our karmic accounts are have ended, and somehow we crossed each other's paths to assure that we're alright in our individual journey. He had paid for my cab fare as a as a way to thank me, and it took me an hour to reach home, but it all went okay. I came back home with the story. Coming back to our celestial body, stars and planets, horoscopes, our birth charts, our tarot cards, the interpreters of the tarot cards rators, the witches, the astrologers. People who try to understand this and try and predict things. But no astrologer could have predicted this kind of an evening, this chain of events. But you know, they would say that, see, you had a fun evening, an event happened that got you joy, and you were surprised by it in a good way, and you got some kind of monetary profit as he paid for my cap fair. Um, joy, money, happiness from Venus, and a surprise from Uranus. And in a way, they were right. But the prediction was a surprise romantic evening, a lottery when what I'm trying to say is even if someone has deep understanding of my life, my choices, my decision-making processes, my personality, my birth chart, my uh my all my horoscopes and my tarot cards, I mean everything, and they still could not have predicted this evening. The things were kind of right, but beyond that, nothing fits. And when when I personally look back, the entire day, the entire evening felt a bit distinct. Because, you know, the events, the chain of events happened because of one decision of mine, that is, that was to wear a sari. A single decision. If I had not worn a sari, I would have opted for a local train and nothing would have happened. That one decision led to different tangent of events, at least for me. Maybe sometimes we need to try different things just for the sake of it. My sister calls this a result of the of the pattern recognizing obsessed brain of mine. She says that since I had heard the Instagram astrologer talking about a surprise positive event, a possibility of a positive event that evening, my mind agreed to make a decision that allowed me to take a chance and return the phone to the stranger. I mean, I could have asked the caviar to switch off the phone. The possibility of something good influenced my action. Since I had heard that something good can happen this evening, I took a risk. I took a chance. I took actions towards the outcome that I hoped and thought was possible. And she's kind of right too. So is it patterns or planets? What guides our actions? I mean, this is coming from someone who engages in astrology, and and I believe that's a huge number of people. And when I say astrology, I'm talking about all kinds of fortune telling, but what guides us? Patterns or planets, I think it's hope. I think it's just hope. I believe this personally, and with all of my limited knowledge, astrology is not that great in predicting life events. I mean, it it was not able to predict COVID and lockdowns, right? But it is kind of good with themes and baselines. Astrology cannot be used for prediction, but if not prediction, then what's the need of this of fortune telling of trying to predict the future? Why, as human beings, have we as a collective Effectively as a society, carry this belief that something out there influences our faiths and our lives when nothing can be predicted with certain with certainty, not even like 70 to 80 percent accuracy. Because we need hope and we need answers. Life does not make sense. There are no definite answers, there is no absolute justice. But we need some semblance of sense, some pattern, some reason to keep going. Astrology, palmistry, tarot, all other forms of mysticism are a hope machine. They tell you that you have a better future when you're down in the dance. They tell you, yes, life gets better, money will come, deaths will go, health improves, and your heart believes that it's possible and it keeps going. It's like a small dose of opium for a laborer working in the afternoon in a farm.

SPEAKER_00 23:07

It keeps him going for a few more hours without making him feel miserable.

SPEAKER_01 23:17

Planets kind of influence our patterns, and in a way, patterns do not influence our planets, but patterns influence our predictions. How we interpret life. When I think about life, I mostly imagine myself standing beneath a lit lamppost in a dark alley. I can see others, my family, my friends, with their individual lampposts. But personally, I am standing beneath a lit lamppost, and my worldview is limited to the area that the light touches. But I know personally, I know that there are other things in the dark beyond my view. It could be good or bad, there could be fame, joy, and love or horrors in that dark. And all of this astrologies, this pattern recognition, this mysticism, they they all are like you know, like a torch that we throw in the dark, trying to understand what is what lies beyond that, what lies beyond my my worldview, what lies beyond this light. And that is that's the entire crux of it. Because in order to keep going, in order to not die of the fear of what lies in the dark beyond me, I need to believe that the world has patterns, that the world has logic and sense, that it has some level of predictability, that there are people in the world who are suffering the same things that I am suffering, that I am seeing. Um that there are people who have gone through some, who are going through or who have gone through something, but I'm going through, and they have survived it, and they have crossed it. And that is where the entire hope machine comes from, and that's what we seek in the planets in our child. We just seek hope either from patterns or planets, we just seek hope to survive. That's all for this episode. See you next time.