Strangers

We all are, in a way, strangers in this life. If somebody tries to talk to me or looks at me, I'll first think "Do I know this guy" or "Do I know this girl"? And at the same time, the vice versa, "Does he (or she) know me"? Answer comes most of the times as "No". Then next question comes in mind "Are we linked in some way? Do we have something in common? Can we be linked in some way?" And most of the times, answer comes as "Yes" and sometimes a new relation starts, although ratio is very less. We are no more strangers.

Few days back, I was watching a movie "Strangers". That time again, same thought came to mind that perhaps no one is a stranger, or perhaps everybody is. Family and friends are not strangers, but at some point of time, when this all started, they were strangers. I was a stranger to this world, when I came to life. A small baby who tried to understand the simplicity of relations and at the same time, the intricacies of life. Then that baby grew up and said, "it's my life". All who are or were linked said, "it's our life" and the journey was on.

Not only people but any thing, in start, looks like something strange. With time and with experience, it automatically mingles with life and we feel like we used to know about it for a long time, it is no more a strange thing. It is a friend. I found a number of books strange, when I see hundreds of pages in that book, it really scares. When we start, it's a slow process to be an acquaintance of that book. But when we start going past first couple of hundreds of pages, it becomes a friend for some time. If book is worthy enough, a life lasting relationship starts. This hope is always there that we would have lots of nice strangers in the form of written or unwritten books of life. Knowingly or unknowingly, it happens.

To end this short tidbit, I would recite a line from a hindi movie song. "Ajnabee, tum jaane pahchaane se lagte ho..."

- Neeraj Mathpal
March 23, 2008