Are you the kind of person who would talk to strangers? No? Well, me neither. Remember how messages keep floating saying ‘we have been taught since our childhood not to talk to strangers, but then parents force their daughter to marry a stranger’!!!Strange enough! It’s a fact. The world has changed, but the children are going through the same instructions …Stay away from strangers, and it is actually needed now-a-days seeing the kind of danger children are in from strangers whether it comes to begging, human trafficking and many other things.  (opening lines from my e-book “chat with a stranger”) 

But seriously, the elderly people are in real danger these days. With the grandchildren being too busy staying out either at school or tuition centres and their parents out on 9 to 9 jobs mostly, the old hearts with the need to ventilate and obviously gone innocent to the world running at a fast pace are easy victims for a lot many people starting from the evil minded acquaintances of the servants at home to the greedy ‘babas’ in disguise who pull the oldies into their ‘aura’ by promising a peaceful life. These babas are too skilled at betraying the senses by pretending to eradicate all the bad souls in the house by using mantras and what not, which ultimately convinces the elderly people that something good is about happen, and this becomes a never ending process. So instead of being strangers these babas become very much worshippable characters for whom there is no ‘no-entry’ board.

Looking around in the house for spirits or the wandering evil souls, these babas actually perform a good recce to which the oldies remain oblivious. This recce is done on regular intervals to build faith and win trust of the people. With the passage of time, since the oldies get someone to talk to and to open upto, situations start taking a new turn. A lot many things are given away to these babas as gifts and/or for throwing away since they are considered as dwelling places for evil spirits. Also some pretenders who do not really succeed in getting materialistic benefits, ultimately turn killers or molesters in some or the other way.

The most important thing is that human mind becomes a victim of love, hence blind to criminal attitude. The heart needs solace so it becomes an easy catch. The importance of joint families comes to aid here. With the growth of neuclear families, the fun and safety of being in a joint family has been overlooked. We need to process the desire of togetherness if we wish to be safe. Being alone or wanting to be independent completely has more of a dark side and does more harm than good.

Another important point here is that is it that only strangers can cause harm? No, we have had a recent case of a woman being murdered in very own city of lakes, Udaipur, by her neighbour. Whom to trust now? Basically it throws light on the fact that no one is actually safe. If you can be attacked by your regular visitor, neighbour, relative, so called well wishers then nobody is safe. It is not about dragging everyone into suspicion; it is about keeping everyone at arm’s length very specifically when you are alone at home. No harm in being bold enough to say “NO” when a sales person knocks at your door. Probably he knows you are alone. He might promise you more profits on his product and even offer a free gift, ultimately asking you to let him enter the house to see the right place to fit in something that you cannot do on your own. And you might be his next victim for a mere robbery, too.

Safety is the most important thing, so we need to make sure that we give the right set of instructions to the single elder member or even members of the house and also give them enough love so that they don’t feel the need for a vent in the outside world.

Of course, we cannot change the world, but a single step in this direction can give rise to many more positive steps.