For some people, it is downright easy to utter the words like ‘I don’t trust you’ so casually and perfunctorily and with complete detachment, as if it doesn’t mean a thing. They believe that these words have no profound or everlasting impact on the listeners, for them these words are no more than a simple retort or an expression of anger at a distasteful act or behavior worthy of attracting such a comment. I might take an entire lifetime to utter the words ‘I don’t trust you’ to anyone in my immediate circle even if he or she might have been egregiously or viciously bad to me at any point in time in the past. What is just trivial or inconsequential for some, could be life changing in a devastating way for others who are at the receiving end. Come to think of it, these are very harsh words one could ever say to anyone as these might just close out all the possible doors to working out a reconciliation between the warring individuals or factions. In my view trust is a very strong word or at least one that evokes strong emotions, feelings and thoughts. Figuratively speaking, you simply do not call for his or her trust over a trivial material thing like a pen or even a phone, you trust the other with a precious thing such as your life. One begins to trust another only after a lifetime of good acts and nice behavior over an extended time frame, not just a cursory meeting or a casual friendship. Do you realise that the word trust represents one of the most impactful and potent emotions and feelings not just in one language but all other languages and cultures alike? Receiving someone’s trust is a sign of one’s maturity, superior personality traits that adorn only distinguished few who are of unimpeachable character beyond an iota of doubt. Such people are like the ‘pole star’ in other people’s lives showing and guiding them on their way Forward. It is hard to find such people in daily life who could be trusted, so whenever you find one hold on to him or her for your entire lifetime, who knows you might not meet another for as long as you live.

These days we are being bombarded with surfeit of news through print, electronic as well as digital media reaching us every minute at high decibel. On the TV debates, both parties seem to have done their homework well as both sound quite convincing. But after a few minutes, the debate loses its decorum and so do the participants and it just boils down to pure noise while failing to cut any ice in the minds of the viewers. In the din of the moment, all facts seem to blow away in the wind while we are left with only piercing noise in our ears. In this scenario, I fail to understand whom to believe. If this continues for a while longer, I will go crazy and won’t know whom to trust. I wasn’t so distrustful always but the way things are served on a platter, I am bound to ask some tough questions. Why do you resort to same tactical gimmicks what the previous government did in their time? You punched the previous government and now you yourself fail to accomplish the tasks. Laying the blame on someone else’s doorstep seems to be your favorite past time while God knows who is steering the country. Then there is a lot of noise about the awareness campaign about ‘being a responsible reader or listener, decipher the real news from the fake one’. Is it because people are forever trusting? Do they easily believe anything that they hear or see? I swear, one is forced to instantly believe the fake news as it is most sensational. For sure these matters can be quite vexing and going forward I would have to do my homework too so that I know where to place my trust in future. We have always lived in an atmosphere where common citizens’ collective trust is breached with impunity and without an iota of compunction by majority of our politicians whom we elect to help us sort our lives but ultimately, they end up tearing our trust to pieces.

In a democracy, it is the sanctity of the Institutions that is of prime importance and is upheld at any cost. Furthermore, it is the work of these institutions that speaks for itself and this has helped build collective trust of common citizens and their faith in democracy over decades and even centuries. The institution’s standing is way above those who hold top positions within them. These institutions have stood like pillars when all fell down to the ground. These institutions alone have to power to resurrect the democratic process so that democracy can take roots all over again. The institutions are recognized for what these have achieved in the past all because of the autonomy they enjoyed to power their way to excellence. If their autonomy is at stake, how would they take sane decisions in the interest of general public. Consequently, how would they hold the faith and trust of general public going forward whose trust they have enjoyed from the beginning to become what they are today.

I remember an incident way back while I was working for an MNC. There was a colleague of mine who was generally and genuinely pissed of with another colleague of ours. Since I happened to be there at the time when all the high-pitched drama was unfolding, I can supply you with some unadulterated facts regarding the point in the whole case. There used to be stock taking at the end of day when it had to be reconciled and reported in the software. There was a small error made by the other colleague and the same got reported, or shall I say misreported. The resultant confusion that this incident led to, was the main point of contention between them. I can vouch there a genuine error and no mala fide intention on the other colleague’s part. Ultimately the batch had to be reopened, reworked after taking due permissions and a few rounds of apologies to the higher ups. Consequently, we all got late in the evening but returned the next day on time. As soon as the office started it so happened that this friend of mine remarked, ‘from onwards I will not trust you’. How hard was that? I was forced to think ‘Does someone give or take trust on such matters? I think it was too harsh on her part not to trust the colleague for an inadvertent error in official reporting. It was a simple matter of believing or not believing someone about one single thing in your day to day life. It was not at all about something about jeopardising one’s safety, security or that of life and death. Then why the hell did she cry foul? At most this might have been a case of believing things blindly. She should have double checked the figures before reporting as was the laid down in the SOP as well. I hope the matter ended there. 

 [ Also Read: Are you selfish and conceited? ]

If you too have formed a habit of distrusting everyone, well it’s too bad as the world moves only on trust and for you to move forward you too would have to trust someone. I fully understand that at times this could be a hard thing to do, but won’t it be better to make efforts at finding reasons to trust rather than to distrust and finding reasons to move ahead rather than receding or retreating?       

Two entities you can always trust. One is you yourself and the other is The God inside you.