Converse with your Past, Present & Future Self Meetup Recap [5th July, 26 | Bangalore]

A room full of 10 women & yet no one talked with each other.

Because the conversations weren't happening across the table.

They were happening across time.

The theme of our latest TwoXTopia meetup was simple:

"Converse with your past, present & future self"

We started with the past.

Now I've hosted enough meetups to know how emotional these conversations get.

And yet somehow, I still get blindsided every single time.

Every woman had a story to tell :

→stories about childhood,
→relationships, dreams that didn't work out
→things they feared sharing with their loved ones back then
→and versions of themselves they'd left behind.

Then it was my turn.

Halfway through sharing, I caught myself thinking,

"My story isn't even that traumatic compared to theirs."

Which was ironic because I'd just asked everyone not to compare their stories.

The truth is, suffering isn't a competition.

Just because someone else's pain seems bigger doesn't make yours any less real.

I'd buried parts of my own past so deeply that they didn't even come up.

Not because they never happened.

But because somewhere along the way, I'd forgotten them.

Things had gotten heavy pretty quickly for everyone after the "Past session"

So I made everyone play a fun game 😂

Sometimes people just need a breather.

Then we moved on to the Present.

I asked everyone,

👉🏻 "Would your past self be surprised with how life turned out?"

The mood changed almost instantly.

For a while, nobody spoke about what was missing.

Instead, we spoke about what we already had.

→The people.
→The little wins we'd forgotten to celebrate.

Then came the Future.

And suddenly, everyone imagined their own little utopia.

→Some dreamed of successful careers
→Some dreamed of families
→Some simply wanted peace
→And some imagined a world with less misogyny, racism, xenophobia & homophobia

Different dreams.
Same hope.

Finally, I asked one last question,

👉🏻"What would your future self say to your current self to make that future a reality?"

By the end of the meetup, I realised something.

We may have started by talking to ourselves.

But somewhere along the way, those conversations became shared experiences.

Because hearing someone else's story has a funny way of helping you understand your own.

Maybe that's what a safe space really is.

Not a room where everyone has the same story.

Just a room where nobody has to hide it.

That's what I've been trying to build with TwoXTopia.

Not just a women-only platform,

but a place where
→women can find each other,
→build communities
→and create spaces like these for themselves.

Through TwoXTopia I host these meetups regularly.

Hopefully one day, you'll host one too.

If your past, present & future self were sitting at the same table today,

What do you think they'd say to each other?