Skip to main content

From stranger, to stranger.



Wow! It has been a long time since I blogged. A glance at the last post shows that two months has whizzed past and that I don't have a single post during that period. I hope to make amends for the involuntary hibernation by weekly posting from now. And so here goes the first of them.

 Trust. Every one of us trusts some individual in our passage towards higher echelons of life, don't we? But as we indulge in conversations with our peers, we find that some render trust generously while the rest waver under veiled gardens. Why is there a disparity when all of us are cut from the same fabric? The solution to this query lies under the oft-quoted answer "Our past experiences make us trust less!" So true, right?

We meet a stranger on the road sharing our same taste and as the conversation proceeds (or not, depending on what our moms taught us!), we connect with them at a level that, in truth, cannot be quantified. Strangers on roads are not exactly potential candidates for the close-friend tag, but our classmates sure are. From being a classmate to teasing them over coffee to begging for lecture notes on exam-eve to late-night movies and banter-filled emotionally charged walks on a normal day, the stranger in the classroom transcends into somebody-more-than-family that you always long for. You share with him stories that you never in your dreams would have envisaged of sharing with any other individual in this world. Talking freely without a care in this world, not fearing judgement, and listening to what this guy shares of his life, his experiences, is one part of life that should endure eternity. Sadly, it is not to be. Every era has to come to an end, because that is what defines the word 'era' and that is precisely where the glory of that word lies
.
And you may be wondering why I started with trust and veered off-course. I haven't, certainly. When you lose that person, it tears into you. Those that truly rend you, aren't known to the world of acquaintances and friends. It is what you feel at lights-off, when the sound of silence is all you surround yourself with. That moment, when there is nobody to influence your synaptic chemical-bullets, is precisely when you look into yourself and understand who you really are. And in that moment of enlightenment, you truly know how deep your trust towards a person is. The enlightenment will never come overnight. This person would have endured torrid times in his past, and those may not necessarily be tussles with monsters or the like. It may be as trivial as not being given the conducive environment for growth that a family should give or as simple as fighting with your own self over 'influenced' mistakes. He chooses to share it with you, and there-in comes trust, a bond that should never be violated, even under conditions of stress. To have that person away and torn away from you, never to return, will stifle you. Your experiences will inhibit you from taking a step towards trusting another person with your dreams, your aspirations and your fears.

That is the stage when you move from 'developing trust in someone' to 'someone earning your trust'.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sonnet 18

Sonnets do not seem so dull suddenly .  Most of us hate hot and sultry summer days, don't we? Well then. We should be intrigued to witness a minority group that is interested in them. To such a group belongs Shakespeare. Yes. The very same person who penned pearls of wisdom on the landscape of love, the agony of pain and the anti-ephemeral nature of reproduction. Femininity is mostly associated with beauty. William ventures to an extent where he undermines the magnificence of the Sun illuminating Earth, and elevates the beauty of his love. However delve further into the sonnet and you will find a parallel story emerging. A story of the Sun's glory! Weaving both extremes into a single sonnet, he implores the reader to make a choice. Persons who are and have been in love would relate the sonnet to a woman's beauty while the rest would relate it to the Sun. Note the lines 'Rough winds...short a date'. Winds of high velocity may obscure the brightness ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Head-less and Tail-less.

Crisp. This single five letter word evokes many feelings and pleasant sceneries within us, only upon dwelling though. It may be the delicious crunch of a packet of chips, the refreshing atmosphere surrounding us or one of the many letter-assortments availed to emphasize an individual’s character, to name a few. I will portray this word in a completely new light in this essay, as that in relation to the broad canvas spanned by cyber-borders and its ilk. To initiate the discussion, let us take the case of Narendra Modi, the honourable Prime Minister of India. He ushered in a new paradigm of campaigning in the prelude to the Lok Sabha elections in 2014. Successfully wielding the weapon of social media, he lured the major demographic of India: the youth. That he won the election by a staggering margin is ample proof of what social media and in broader terms, what the Internet can do. The question being debated here is not the after-shocks of social media but the exploitation of the I...
Post a Comment
Read more

Forks.

There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which taken at the flood leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life Is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat, And we must take the current when it serves, Or lose all our ventures.  These lines were spoken by Shakespeare through the guise of Brutus in 'Julius Caesar'. Had my high-school English text not contained lessons on Shakespeare's plays, my thoughts would never have been influenced or widened to the level it currently has been now. The above quote has been one of many that I have tried to understand and also could relate myself to, during my trysts with life's curves. Being an open-minded person comes with its own travails. Acquaintances dismiss you off with a wave of the hand or a shrug of the face whenever you contradict society's opinion. Friends do not quite grasp your flight of thoughts and utter all-too-familiar refrains of exasperation. To ride all this a...
Post a Comment
Read more