copyright parag shah

The Stranger in a Familiar world!

We often think that we live in a familiar world

Without a spoken word

We feel and see and touch and feel

And yet there is nothing left but our weary feet

Walking like ghosts of the past

We think we know everything of the present and the past

Strangely we dont

When I see a stranger , walking on the road

My car whizzing past on the familiar road 

I feel the stranger is familar just as the road

And when I meet a familiar person 

I wonder if its the same person 

The familiar then becomes the stranger

And the stranger becomes the familiar

And I wonder if I got it all wrong

Like the road unfamiliar, did I get it all wrong ?

We sometimes think that the most familiar

is the stranger 

And the stranger is the most familiar

We then hate the familiar

and love the stranger

As my car whizzes past I look into the rear view mirror

I realise that I give the power to the familiar

To hurt and to cut and to burn me

Atleast I dont give the power to the stranger

To hurt and to cut and to burn me

Its better to know the stranger in the familiar

Then to know the familiar in the stranger

And my car moves on..

Keeping my faith in human beings on...

Until I hurt and cut and burn again......

And I meet the stranger in the familiar again!

Parag Shah

October 2012