Concentric Circles

Night of 18th Sept 1993, A day prior to my birthday, I had flown to Mumbai to meet Swati, since all the money was spent on the air fare we were staying at Rashid Mansion, Dockyard Road in the house of Rayomond S. Framose – fondly called Rayo by most. Swati had taken the keys from him – he had said that he would be out for a while…

I was meeting Swati after a gap of almost 6 months and those were the pre-net days – no email, no chat, no mobile, could not afford to talk more than once a week!! It was a passionate evening and we were soon exhausted. At around 1:30 am we were woken up by very gentle and soothing rendering of “Strangers in the night” on piano, this was followed by “Annie’s song”, it was Rayo playing two of Swati’s all time favourite. After which Rayo just got up and went out again without saying a word. The music was lovely at the same time had strains of anguish which we could not place…

We lay awake for a long long time in each others arms not saying a word, in the comforting cocoon of our love.

It was next day afternoon when Rayo retruned that we learnt that the day prior he had spent at the death bed of a very dear friend – she had cancer… …

It was he who had said the you have family and friends in concentric circles around you, the inner most circle is most dear to you and will also hurt you the most, the key lies in placing the correct radius for everyone.

Swati recalled this today morning – wanted to share it with a certain someone but was not sure of the radius… …

Are you?

  • Anonymous

    A profound way of looking at it, but sometimes, the system will fail on you. Especially when, after very carefully defining the radii, you find out that someone in one of the innermost circles, whom by definition you had placed the most amount of trust and faith in, suddenly turns out to be unworthy of even being considered for a placement in your life.

    And yes – the key lies in placing the correct radius for everyone. But how do you determine the correct radius?

    — The Stone

    • Like everything else in life, determining radii for people is experience oriented. You cant protect yourself 100% against hurt, best to getover with it as soon as you can. Clean rakes are easier -trying to hold on hurts more.

    • seems like that your hurt is that of being betray Or feeling betrayed. Was it betrayal OR turning a blind eye?

      On a different note – I grew up in a very harsh emotional environment – my mother died when I was 15 and I was left alone in a crowd of double faced relatives tending to my father … …

      So my inner most circle is just me, my wife and my son, the second and a way much greater radii circle has my brother, my aunt and my in laws. The circle outside that is where radii tends to infinity with a few exception here and there. Like Swati said it is experience … …