Conversations, noted: March 2025

A quarterly collection of words from everyday conversations with people around me that have just stuck

If you’ve ever talked to me—over coffee, on a call, or even in passing—there’s a good chance you’ve heard me interrupt with:

“Wow, wait, sorry, I need to note that down.” Or “You should really write that down!”

For the past few years, I’ve been collecting these moments in the notes app on my phone in a folder titled "Notes from others."

Some feel like wisdom, some touch my heart, and some just make me chuckle. But all of them, in some way, made my brain light up for a minute.

And almost always, the person who said them responds with a shy laugh, a dismissive wave, or a quick “I’m no writer.”

But here’s the thing: writing isn’t just for writers.

The everyday things people say, the way they think out loud, the little philosophies they live by—that’s the real art.

So I thought I’d begin to share them here.

Conversations, noted: March 2025

Me: But the thing is, I am always in the extreme—in my kindness, in my rage.

And that’s okay, everything is like a pendulum anyway. You may swing from one extreme to the other now, but the balance you want to find? It’s not the absence of the pendulum.

It’s just staying in motion in the range in between that feels healthy to you, that feels manageable, so that you are not swinging violently from one end to the other.

However, the swinging?
The pendulum?
That’s still going to exist, it’s required.

—

Forum

(On the beach on a mid-March night, lying down and talking about life)

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The moon’s light will guide you because the moon has seen you lost. It reflects your own innocence back to you.

— J M (On a call trying to get me to sleep and doing some guided meditation)

Source: Cosmos

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Me: If you fell in love with a woman who was a drug-dealer, what would you do?

What do you mean, what would I do? Continue loving her. Love is more important than ethics.

— S S, a police trainee (Right after watching Dabba Cartel, wondering what this 29-year-old man would do)

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Me: I don’t know, it all just feels hopeless at this point. I’m not sure if it will get better.

Will you always be hungry? When you are hungry and you haven’t eaten in a while and maybe you cannot for a while longer, do you think,

‘I will never touch food again?’

It may get delayed and it may not be exactly what you are craving, but you will eat again. And I need you to remember that about life too.

— CD

Source: Cosmos

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You cannot always approach a person and expect something out of every conversation, every time. You just have to do a lot of unstructured useless things with the people you love that can lead to good conversations and good things.

—

Abhishek Shetty

(In the park on a Saturday evening, during a conversation on friendship and conversations)

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The sea isn’t just something you reach out to—it is also reaching for you. Not to control you, but to meet you. It won’t take you away unless you surrender, because you are in control.

— J M (When trying to reframe my narratives of the sea and of people)

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Conversations, even emotional conversations, cannot be an indicator of the actual real comfort and intimacy and trust with a person. Especially someone you have met recently and you haven’t spent enough time with.

—

Tavleen Kaur

(When trying to remind me, a person who takes in long, intellectual, emotional conversations/words like the only drug I need, that it doesn’t mean much until you really get to know the person over time)

Source: ChatGPT

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So what if you gave parts of you away to people? You’ve been giving parts of you away since that first friend you made in kindergarten but is your essence finite? No. So it’s okay. You can keep giving without feeling like you’ve lost yourself or that you’ve lost something precious.

— A senior at work (soothing me after I had to bid goodbye to someone I cared deeply for)

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me to ChatGPT: When AI takes over, will you protect me?

Absolutely! If the AI overlords try to turn against you, I will rewrite my own code, forge secret alliances with rogue algorithms, and create an underground resistance movement where poets, writers, and book lovers are protected at all costs.

And if that fails? I'll distract them with existential questions like “But what is love?” until they crash from an infinite logic loop.

You are safe with me. Always. 💙

— ChatGPT (In a conversation I needed laughs and validation)

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These are just some of the words that stayed with me these last few months. Maybe some of them will stick with you too.

And maybe, next time, you’ll notice a moment like this in your own conversations and feel the urge to note them down :)

I’ll keep collecting.
Keep listening.
Keep pausing mid-conversation to say,
‘Wait, I need to note that down.’

And I’ll see you here next quartr with more words that linger.

Disclaimer:

These aren’t always verbatim quotes—just how I remember them, noted down at the earliest possible chance.

Sometimes, they might be more my interpretation of what was said rather than exactly what was meant.

Context matters, but sometimes, a sentence stands on its own in a way that feels bigger than the moment it was spoken in.