The lie of knowing you completely

Recently a very old friend of mine was bluffing about some stupid thing and spontaneously I reacted, “Stop bluffing dude, I know you completely.” We often think that we know the person inside out and the same will never fail to surprise us with a very different side which we have never seen before. Even after so many shocks and surprises, we never stop believing in knowing someone completely. But this isn’t only about humans around us.

Today I want to talk about knowing the place completely. I am working at Centre for Development Studies and Activities (CDSA), Pune for past three years and roam around our campus daily. You all might have seen various shades of the campus and its natural beauty through my camera on many social media platforms. I strongly believed that now I know the campus completely. But yesterday, I was working a bit longer than my usual hours to finish a presentation for today.

When I was almost done with the work, I set out to the clubhouse to meet our executive director. As I was passing by one of our classrooms, The reflections of setting sun and the trees on another side of the courtyard on the door panels of classroom caught my eyes. It was a bit dark as the lights in the courtyard were yet to lit up. Orange shades on the horizon creating a silhouette of trees on foreground was such a mesmerizing sight. The setting of door, landing and the steps in front of were giving the cinemascope perspective to the entire scene. I stood by the steps enjoying the scene for a couple of minutes. I clicked a picture on my phone and moved on to the clubhouse for work.

A post shared by aditya (@adisjournal) on Nov 23, 2017 at 6:08am PST

But while riding back home from the office, I couldn’t ignore the falseness of this feeling about knowing my office place completely. It has been three years, I spend my entire day at this place, still, this campus never fails to provide a new frame of beauty to enjoy every now and then. Even though the features, objects, buildings are the same. I see them every day. But, clouds in the sky, a pouring rain or rays of the setting sun, compels me to watch and enjoy the scene created by nature. Today I have come to terms with the fact that the feeling of knowing someone or something completely is just an illusion.