Can I be honest with you?  You might think I am absolutely bonkers. But I have to come clean about this. I am a proud ‘In – Betweener’.

What does that even mean in this world of grand ambitions & instant gratification? As I lazily stare out my balcony at the street that never sleeps, I ponder back at my thirty years trying to remember if I ever wanted something that bad. My mind sifts through all the scattered memories and gets back perhaps a handful of times I have felt a fierce longing . Almost all of these were for people i deeply care about. For the most part, I have been an incorrigibly gleeful soul who’s thrived unabashedly in the ‘middle’.

So, where is this ‘middle’ or ‘in-between’? In the sea of go getters, race champs and cut throat competitors , in-betweeners are those people who are happy with the consolation prize. They are those who maybe part of the race but are not hell bent on winning it. They want to be good without the pressure of being great. They want to shine without the insecurity of being outshone. They are the ones who have a purpose without trying to prove a point to the world.

We are not the first-benchers or the back benchers too. We are the ones who got away with a lot of mischief while being in the middle. We stop and smell the roses. We take many timeouts. We shrug any excess baggage of forced connections and fake smiles. We love the journey even if it is made in ‘cattle class’ and enjoy the destination even if it does not have an instagrammable view. We’d most probably be the moderators in the squabbles and debates of our friends or family. We are the size 10-12s who have no aspirations to be in the ‘4-8’ club.

The competitive world might have many names for us ; second-bests, pushovers, lotus eaters. But that’s what differentiates us from the rest of the world. The non chalance , the cozy comfort and blissful disregard of where the world is heading. Because we have our own path to tread, at our own pace.

And where are we going? To a beautiful place where good is good enough, where blessings are counted and prayers are to say thanks. We’re slow travellers who love to wander. We have no lists, we have no regrets. We’re in the moment without caring for the next.

We’re not religious but we’re not atheists too. We have principles but are not necessarily rigid about them.We make our purpose as we tread along and embrace life instead of tackling it head on.

We’re tree-huggers. We’re beach-combers. We’re star-gazers. We’re lazy-bums.

Come peek in this utopia oh harried soul, you’ll find many peaceful breaths and smiling faces.