I had an opportunity to meet an entrepreneur recently, while I was looking for support in setting up Samarth as an organization.
As we spoke, we realized we were from the same age group.
She had grown up in a small town in the north of India.
I had grown up in Chennai.
And somewhere in that conversation, 1993 came alive again.
I remember the night my brother and I fought with my parents for my college admission fees—not because we didn’t value education, but because there was a very real concern:
Would this make it harder to find a “suitable” match for me?
And here she was, in that same time frame—speaking with her father about preparing for the IIM entrance exams.
The starkness of that contrast was not lost on me.
Two young girls.
Same country. Same decade.
But two very different starting points—shaped by what the adults around them believed was possible…and what felt impossible, even unthinkable.
It brought me back to a thought that has been sitting with me:
The next time we operate from fear—
wanting to protect, to control, to avoid what could go wrong…
what are we quietly shaping?
Because it doesn’t always look like denial.
Sometimes, it looks like care.
It feels genuine. Visceral.
Sometimes, it sounds like:
“Let’s be practical.”
“Let’s not take unnecessary risks.”
“Let’s choose what is safer.”
But in those moments, something shifts.
Possibility gets edited.
Trajectories change.
Not dramatically—
but in small, almost invisible degrees.
One decision. One degree.
And over time, the distance between what could have been
and what became… quietly widens.
I don’t hold this as blame.
My parents were doing what they believed was right within their worldview.
But I cannot ignore what it reveals.
What we deny in one generation—
especially when fear begins to define our choices—
often becomes the boundary the next learns to live within.
And what we allow—
expands what they believe is possible.
Maybe the question is not just—
What could go wrong?
But—
What might never even get the chance to go right?
What this really begs is a deeper question—
are we becoming aware of the decisions we are making, and the impact they carry?
And if we are,
what are we doing to teach ourselves to see possibility…
not just risk?