An Ode to Strangers

Tum saath ho ya na ho, kya fark hai,
Bedard thi zindagi, bedard hai.
-Tum saath ho (Tamasha)

It doesn't matter that you are with me,
Because life is remorseless and will be.

Let me start by talking about the presence of a person. The one who allows you to withdraw comfort and acceptance. Because we have a tendency to see life as a rocking boat, where holding on tight is required to stay on board. As every scorned lover or friend might say, this is a dangerous thing to do- I would nod along to them even if adoration for me remains fulfilled in both aspects. Perhaps, the witch-hunt for love and adulation that we all undertake on an everyday basis, steers us away from giving it to others. I have discovered that one's purpose in life remains vague until they associate it with some other being. Passion for another moving, breathing and talking entity is placed easily. While this remains a beautiful thing to do, we forget the beauty of knowing the strangers who walk with us.
They are the ones who look at you with curiosity and interest, allowing you to gather the best out of them. They react at everything that you say or exhibit and help you build up a new identity at every hello. That is the way of a faceless human- frankly devoid of any kind of passion. But with everyone that you know or love, you will remain a pixilated image. They will look at you, but will not be able to differentiate the cuts that define your sculpt. Strangers value you because you wont keep them company forever.
Like a butterfly that flies off just as its colors start hypnotizing, the strangers will dread losing you to myriad of faces that they will never see again.

But fly off you do, let them be strangers.

Beginning, Not Too Soon

On the joyous occasion of releasing my first write-up, I would like to thank my first reader, yes only you, whoever you will be. I don't want to divide the credit yet- the first one is special.

Its time to awaken the part of my being which is not a beginner at all. It is just a little awry of all the great intellectual goons who have set amazing examples and raised the bar quite high. Here I am, uncertainty weighing on my mind with self-criticism winning the war against THE happy impulse. However, succumbing to this weakness contradicts the whole notion of being an adventurist. Maybe its not about winning literary wars, more about taking pleasure in the simple art of putting across your own thoughts to people who deem you worthy of a read.

My love for writing has brought me here, will keep me here and make my thoughts flow in a more synchronized manner. I hope I am able to do one basic thing- that is form a connect between the lives we lead, the thoughts we have (especially the ones we seldom share) and the connections we form with the things that surround us.