STRANGERS

They say, strangers are friends you haven’t met yet. However, the bitter irony is that we so often hear disheartening and daunting stories of how people fall prey to the ethics of these strangers that our mind clock ticks a zillion times before befriending anybody. Our guarded mindset warns us to be alert. There is solid evidence that most people are quite cynical about human nature, and this cynicism is nurtured right from childhood. Even babies show some variant of this ‘Stranger anxiety’, because they question if someone else can really be trusted to come and soothe their upsets.

Think about it like this: the first time you trust a stranger and are betrayed, it makes sense to avoid trusting other strangers in the future. The problem is that when we don't ever trust strangers, we never find out how trustworthy people in general really are. As a result our estimation of them is governed by fear. If you try trusting others in this viscous circle, you'll find they frequently repay that trust, leading you to be more trusting.

In a world where everyone is out for themselves, who should we trust? One signal that suggests we are trustworthy is a smile. Genuine smiles send a message that other people can trust and cooperate with us. But there are some instances when no signal helps; it is just your plain intuition, and before you know it, you just CLICK and become acquaintances.  You develop a strong bond with some strangers, but it is quite amusing when sometimes, just spending a minute or two with some, leave an ever-lasting imprint on you. 

I recently encountered a stranger on the busy streets of Camp, who happened to open my Locked Car using just 2 simple pieces of wooden plank. As I watched him jaw dropped, it left an immediate impact on me. The incident, and through it this stranger, is something that will always amuse me.  Similarly, the quakes, bomb blasts in Japan, Mumbai have taught me a lot about strangers. How these humble people can actually go out of their way to provide food and shelter to the victims runs shudders through my spine; how the rich, the poor, the young, the old put their own lives to risk and save children. It makes me proud of the humanity that still persists.  When you shift to a new place, the people you see, the neighbours you meet are all strangers until you make an effort to befriend them, or give them a chance to make you understand and know them. You might never imagine in what way, one day, these very same ‘Strangers’ will be of your help.

All these stories now, really makes me wonder, are we doing the right thing, questioning all these Anjaan people we meet, or it is simply our perspective? We need to come out of the barriers that we have built around ourselves and realize that Fear only makes strangers of people who otherwise could be our friends. So give it a chance… For the worse, you simply get an experience, but you never know, many a times it might all be just worth it! J