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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
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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'.

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