The Power of Hugs

Let me start by setting up some context here. The Sagar from 2019 was not a big fan of "hugging" & that always posed a challenge, because the world, by the sheer nature of being human, loves to hug. Sagar from 2019 was quite protective of his personal space & got uncomfortable even if someone just kept his hands on his shoulders in a friendly gesture. Don't ask me why. Sagar was just like that, very warm if you meet him in general but just uncomfortable with human touch.

And then, we all know what happened. In 2020, the pandemic struck & we were forced by nature (& the governments) to not hug or shake hands or just be near people who were not our immediate family. The pandemic stretched on for long & that's when it hit me- I was not allowed to hug people, people were not allowed to hug me! The fact that something which made me uncomfortable was now a legally punishable crime, hit me hard. I started missing all those moments when people had hugged me, had tried to hug me, wanted to be close to me physically.

Fast forward to 2022, it has been more than 2 years to the pandemic and things are gradually coming back to normal & this year, LinkedIn decided to move back to in-person/hybrid Sales Kick-Offs. All of us across our Global Business Organization had the option to travel to Las Vegas & attend the Sales Kick-Off in person or attend it virtually from the comfort of our homes. I, along with more than 6000 other LinkedIn-ers decided to travel to Vegas, to see everyone in person. I, like many others, was skeptical of the event though. We have been working from the comfort of our homes for over 28 months now, we are used to seeing everyone we work with in a screen, we are used to meeting with a specific agenda for 30 to 60 minutes. How will it feel- seeing everyone in real life? Will I be able to hold a conversation together? How overwhelmed would it be? My mind was abuzz with all these questions, until before the FIRST HUG!

The first hug was from an ex-colleague turned great friend, from the Gurgaon office & it just made me melt. My apprehensions, my feelings of being overwhelmed, my doubts about attending an "in person event" of this scale, my worries about being able to meet people in real life & every other doubt just melted away in that one hug, after almost 18 months. The fact that I & this colleague had had too many banters around my inability to accept & reciprocate hugs, was, for lack of better words, an added charm. That first hug made me open up to more of them & I made it a point to hug everyone else I met (of-course if the other person was comfortable with it). The cold wall I had created around myself just melted away and I, in some way, reconnected with myself after those umpteen hugs. It's quite weird how human mind operates, hugging other made me reconnect with my lost sense of self- how & why- I don't have answers to these. All I can say is that it made me realize that my aversion of hugs, was nothing but my hesitant self, scared to open up, scared to move on, scared to connect with itself.

Human beings, by the sheer science of evolution, seek a safe space & while we may try to find it across materialistic things, positions of power & more- at the core of it, an authentic Human Touch is what we all crave for. It is what we live for.

If you ask me today, I would say that hugs are probably the best things ever & in my life after July 2022, I would strive to be more of a Hugger. The Sagar from 2019 might have his own issues of not being able to hug others but the Sagar of 2022 would love to give you a tight, (almost) back breaking hug!

In January 2020, someone very close to my heart had asked me, "How Would You Like To Be Remembered As". My answer was very vague back then but I think today I might change it- I would want to be remembered as "The Guy whose hugs made you forget yourself, even if for a moment."

On that note, go ahead & hug people around you tomorrow. You don't need to give reasons, you don't need to know anyone's story- just hug them, hug them with your true self, hug them with all the positivity you are able to gather, for less than half a minute, and help them reconnect with their own selves.