Monday, July 16, 2007

Trust


I'd been meaning to write about trust for a long time, but I guess I needed to be pushed into writing about this. There is this picture of a waiter passing a laden tray from one compartment of a train to another waiter in another compartment. The funny thing is, the train is moving, and they are hanging out of their respective compartment doors to reach out to each other, their lives depending on how strongly the handles are bolted to the door. Each handle is bolted to a door at two ends, with two bolts at each end. Enough to make you trust the strength of that handle. Enough for you to lean out and be sure you won't be thrown out onto the cactii in the fields.

We trust our machines. When I ride through the 40 kms stretch inside a jungle infested with elephants and even tigers, I trust my motorbike not to break down. I trust that any nail lying on the road would not pierce my tube and deflate it. Such is the strength of trust. And most people garner immense strength from their trust in various gods. When you don't have any gods to turn to, you have to trust yourself. I know my engine is sound enough not to break down now. I know the tyres and tubes are new and "shouldn't" ideally go flat, leaving me an easy prey to whoever is out there, waiting.

And being able to trust gives you a lot of strength. When you know you can close your eyes and just let go backward knowing someone's behind you to hold your fall, you feel powerful. You feel cushioned and safe. And we all need that cushion. And I am happy for all of you who have found your cushion in god/s. For others who do not have that luxury, there are other people. Like today if I want to talk my heart out to someone and I know I can trust one person, I am lucky.

Tomorrow, if that person spills my secrets to someone not even distantly related, you suddenly fall. It's like you were promised that you will be held from behind when you fell, but it was just a prank being played on you. Imagine someone cutting off your bungee ropes?

So, for people who haven't the luxury of sitting in front of some gods and pouring out their miseries, for people who have to turn to other people to even talk normally ... there's a fine catch. Can you trust an apparently trustworthy person? Someone who appears to be a wall, taking in all, can actually be like a dam on the other side, gushing everything out for public consumption.

It is absolutely okay when you don't find out. It is quite another when you do. Those are times you wish you allowed your neighbor to give you that labrador pup.

6 comments:

Monami Roy said...

so what do we, not take the plunge?
\m/

Anonymous said...

What do you do when you dont have anyone to turn to? When you are so accustomed to fooling your own self that sometimes your own existence seems a fallacy? What do you do...when you cant even turn to yourself?

Oreen said...

manic, i still trust people... no matter what i experienced... and

estel, you turn to a real frnd... and that frnd can even be a stranger...

Anonymous said...

Trust is a slave of expectation...everything else is a slave of trust. conviction, strength, postive energy.

IT IS ALSO TRUST THAT BINDS TWO FRIENDS TOGETHER AS MUCH AS A COUPLE IN LOVE OR NOT SO MUCH IN LOVE...In this case each one trusts the other not to defy the trust and commit 'infidelity'...Hope it is making sense

Sona said...

You may be deceived if you trust too much, but you will live in torment if you don't trust enough... Sona

Mampi said...

Trust has to be the driving force of your life,
Trust not as abstract, trust as a base, as a concrete foundation.
I believe in Trust. I am proud to Trust.