bhaskar saikia

The beauty of certainty is an illusion—a mirage that humanity endlessly chases, searching for it in every corner of the world, sometimes even in the vastness of the cosmos. We all long for a life that feels secure, predictable. Our belief in astrology reflects this desire. We want to know what the future holds, as if foreknowledge could somehow help us escape the moments we fear or dislike.

But what if one day, humanity masters the art of predicting the future with absolute accuracy? What if a machine could tell us exactly how our lives would unfold? It would create an unbearable void. With no surprises left, life would lose its thrill, its meaning. It is within uncertainty that the true beauty of life exists.

A few years ago, I watched a Taiwanese film called Turn Left, Turn Right, based on Jimmy Liao’s book A Chance of Sunshine, which was inspired by Wislawa Szymborska’s poem Love at First Sight. The most striking moment in the movie was a line from the narrator:

“Beautiful is such a certainty, but uncertainty is more beautiful.”

The film tells the story of a boy and a girl in search of love, yet despite living in the same building, they never meet. Every time they step out, the girl turns left, while the boy turns right. Their paths remain parallel but never cross.

Unlike the young, the elderly are the only ones who no longer look forward to the future. Instead, they turn to the past, reminiscing about their childhood, youth and the golden days that shaped them. They share their stories with anyone willing to listen, not because they live in the past, but because the past is a certainty they cherish. The future, for them, holds another certainty—one they would rather not think about: death.

Perhaps, in the end, nostalgia is the only certainty we truly love.