Time Feels Different When You Live It
We’re walking through history in real time, just too zoomed in to notice.
Yesterday I watched The History of the World in 20 Minutes. Made in 2008, which might as well be ancient today, was way ahead of its time. Maybe because I’d just finished doomscrolling through the usual: wars, climate disasters, child trafficking and AI takeover scenarios. Light stuff.
And suddenly I was struck by this thought: everything we consider normal about the world today is ridiculously young. Younger than anything be it CP in Delhi or the Marine Drive in Mumbai.
We fight to protect these structures, nations, passports, the internet, but most of them didn’t even exist a hundred years ago.
Time Feels Different When You Live It
Think about India’s independence struggle.
In history books, it’s one line: “First war of independence, 1857. Freedom in 1947.”
Ninety years, just like that.
But imagine living through those ninety years. 3 Generations were born, grew old, and passed, without seeing the end of that fight.
It made me wonder: what massive changes are we living through right now, that will later be compressed into a single line?
“Humans introduced AI → made people stupid → meanwhile the glaciers melted → everyone died. No one left to read or write that history anyway, lol.”
(No Muskan, that’s a different blog :) )
The Speed of Change
The modern passport system? Didn’t exist till 1920.
The idea that you can travel to another country just for fun? Barely a few decades old.
And yet here we are, video calling across continents, ordering food at 3 AM, sending money with a few taps. We act like this has always been the way things work. It hasn’t.
The last 50 years have probably changed the world more than the previous 5000.
My parents grew up without phones. Now they’re sending me memes on WhatsApp and asking about ChatGPT.
Progress is amazing, but it’s also a double-edged sword.
We can predict natural disasters, but we’ve also built nuclear weapons.
We can feed billions, but we’re cooking the planet doing it.
The Rise of Strongmen
Another thing that keeps popping up is the global rise of strong, nationalist leaders.
Feels new, but history says otherwise. The Delhi Sultanate alone saw countless rulers who thought their power would last forever. Now their palaces are backdrops for young couples making out.
"Hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, weak men create hard times."
It makes me wonder, where are we in this cycle? Are we too comfortable? Already tipping back into hard times?
Generations vs. Immediacy
I read something recently that stuck with me: religions think in terms of generations.
They’re built to play long-term, shaping culture, values, and meaning over decades, sometimes even centuries.
Contrast that with how we think now: instant, reactionary, overwhelmed. Part of it, I think, is the flood of information. There’s so much coming at us all the time that our minds can barely hold onto the now, let alone imagine 50 years ahead.
Big lasting change is always intergenerational.
But in an algorithm-fuelled, hyper-reactive world, we desperately need more people who can zoom out and look at the bigger picture.
While most things in life aren’t in our control, I really believe this:
If we taught kids more critical thinking, how to spot patterns, how to question, we’d end up with a society that makes better long-term decisions.
In a world drowning in misinformation, what we need more than ever is the ability to step back and think rationally.
The Space Race
And then there’s this: will we actually become a multi-planetary species before we mess up this one?
Will we see humans walking on Mars, or will climate collapse, wars, or some accidental meteor attack undo us first?
We’re living in this weird window of time, unprecedented progress, unprecedented risks.
It’s like the world’s most high-stakes game of Jenga, except no one told us all the pieces are connected or worse, which piece can lead to total downfall in an instant.
This version of the world won’t last forever. No version ever has.