If I look back on the 24 years I lived, there will be at most five BIG moments that truly transformed me as a person: Making friends from diverse cultures is one of them.

I grew up in Hyderabad.

I built meaningful relationships with people here, and I absolutely love hanging out with them. They taught me things I would only take ages to discover by myself and have always been present when things turned south.

With friendships being this perfect, I never went around looking for more. I was happy with the people in my life and still am.

But I’m glad I made space and allowed new people into my life—Especially from different cultures.

It began two years ago when I started DMing folks on Twitter as a part of ‘networking.’

I thought it was important to make professional connections, which is true. But I was lucky to find people who made me realize early that true networking is more than just knowing people, their work, and contacts.

It’s about making friends.

Ever since I understood this, my conversations changed from talking about work to talking about everything else but work. (Ok, sometimes ranting about work)

I messaged people, asked them to get on a Google Meet, and then we talked and talked for hours.

I vibed with a few people. Not so much with the others.Nonetheless, I’ve made some good friends along the way.

If you ask me, I would say all of us should make friends from different states, at least to begin with. And then also from different countries. (Not the NRIs, but proper Angrez)

India’s rich diversity allows its culture to change every thousand kilometres, offering numerous stories to discover.

It’s fun to listen to tales from across the country about festivals, routines, food, history, locals, pain, pride, religion, cinema, music, language, family, art, and many more endless topics.

It broadened perspectives on levels I had never imagined.

Plus, it made me a conversationalist. I now know how to talk to literally anyone.

It’s beautiful when you realize how different people can be from you and vice versa, yet there are always mutual interests that bind you together.

Today, I am happy to say I have friends across India. In fact, most of my travel plans this year include travelling to different cities and meeting my online friends in person.

If not for anything, make friends to welcome good people in your life 🤌✨

Speaking of friends from different states, this is what happened last week:

Mrunmayee is from Pune, and she was in Hyderabad last week.

I am unable to embed tweets on Substack, but if you want to read about our day, it’s on this thread.

And Vanshita is here too! She is from Assam and lives in Bangalore.

Drove her around and showed Hyderabad’s city life. She is here for a week, so I might meet her again.

That’s all from this week.

See ya!