STRANGERS...!!!

I like watching people on my way to work every morning.

For some reason I am obsessed with those particular thirty minutes that I spend with them, watching them from the glass window, and secretly being part of them for a moment. One cannot possibly have a faintest idea of the stories of these people, How and where they are living, their sufferings, their joys and the moments they share with their families and with the people they know and love, their problems and their thoughts.

Many of them seem like taking kids to schools, Mothers with sleepy eyes and messed hair, running with their kids in their most casual attire to help them reach schools on time, and others are the fathers driving the kids, their sleeves folded up to the elbows, sweating and frowning at the traffic or other careless passerby’s. Many are the children who just walk alone, yawning and dragging their heavy bags and feet towards their schools at a snail’s pace. A lot of them are on their way to their workplaces, some of them are waiting at the bus stops, others are walking, some are driving themselves and others are being driven by chauffeurs.

I like thinking about their stories, how they might be with their families and loved ones. Little kids, how beloved they must be to their parents and family. How this father must have touched the tiny little fingers of the son, he is now driving to school. Poor or rich, these people must have been enjoying the simple joys of life. Joys of smiling at someone and being smiled at, joys of loving someone and being loved, joys of the mother’s scold and father’s care, joys of friendship and trust, joys of being alive and safe and surrounded by people who love and care about you.

I wonder sometimes that how harmless they look, how normal how peaceful. But the fact that every half hour a person is killed in this city of lights has made me rethink my perceptions about these people I meet every day.

Today when I watched these people on my way, I just wondered if anyone of them has not been touched by the violence, bloodshed and brutality that have engulfed our city and our lives. I doubted if every one of them is harmless and non-disruptive. I kept wondering if none of them has lost their loved ones, or may be parts of them in Blasts and Firing incidents that happen in the streets every day.  

Who are these people? are these people really harmless as they seem to be or they are one of "them" whom we fear, I asked myself again, if none of them will ever harm anyone, or ever have.. suddenly this long and emotional acquaintance with these passerby's seemed vague and I felt myself as a victim of a foolish, immature and unsafe emotion. How could these strangers be my thought-mates? How could I feel sensitively attached to them and their routines? They all can be harmful.  I can trust nobody here; Not trusting here is the right way to go, is the right thing to do and this is what I have to do and I am told the same everyday when I leave for somewhere other than home.

I have trouble finding people harmless, I am having trouble trusting anyone around me. These are all mere strangers.. mere strangers.. mere harmful strangers. I seriously wonder if i am ever going to be able to trust and have my faith back. But i doubt it until this brutal bloodshed stops for good.