Ashish Bagrecha - Dear Stranger, I Know How You Feel

DEAR STRANGER, I KNOW HOW YOU FEEL

An entrepreneur by mind and a writer by heart, Ashish Bagrecha is one of Indias most popular Instagram poets. He started writing about life and love in high school, with a dream to become an author someday.

In 2018, while fighting depression and anxiety, he decided to post poems and Dear Stranger letters about healing on Instagram to help and support everyone else who was going through the same feelings.

A strong believer in the universe and its magic, Ashish holds a masters degree in marketing and runs an app development agency. He currently resides in Surat and is married to best-selling author Savi Sharma. Together, they dream to inspire millions through their stories and poems.

You can visit him on Instagram @ashish.bagrecha

First published by Westland Publications Private Limited in 2019

1st Floor, A Block, East Wing, Plot No. 40, SP Infocity, Dr MGR Salai, Perungudi, Kandanchavadi, Chennai 600096

Westland and the Westland logo are the trademarks of Westland Publications Private Limited, or its affiliates.

Copyright Ashish Bagrecha, 2019

ISBN: 9789388754798

The views and opinions expressed in this work are the authors own and the facts are as reported by him, and the publisher is in no way liable for the same.

All rights reserved

No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.

For all the strangers fighting the dark days.

Ill always write about you, for you, to you.

CONTENTS

the truth is

you are at war with yourself

thats why

you find yourself at war with others.

I want to thank you for choosing to read this book. It is a passionate expression of my love and understanding for you and everything that you are going through. Thank you for giving me this chance, dear stranger. I hope I can help you in one way or another.

I dont know much about you. I dont know where you live, what you do for a living, whether you study or work, whether you are healthy or poorly, whether you have children or are still a child yourself. I do know that you are feeling lost. A feeling I am all too familiar with myself. I dont know the details of your life, and you dont know mine, but I want you to know you are not alone in your feelings. I might not know or understand exactly why you are feeling lost, but I hope you can trust me when I say that I have been there. I have experienced what you are going through, and I need you to know that I understand.

And that is why I am writing these letters to you: to let you know that you are not alone, and that you are understood. Your feelings are understood. No matter how difficult life feels and how dark it sometimes looks, there is still hope and there is still light, and you are still cared for. The universe cares about you. Your loved ones care about you. I care about you.

I have been on the other side of the light and I know how dark it can sometimes feel. I have experienced the hurt and the low spirits. I have felt the pain and the loneliness. I just wish that, when I had felt like that, someone had written me a letter to help me see I am not alone. There was no one, but I want to be that person for you. I have realised that most of us struggle with our mental health as we experience lifes lessons and battles, but there is always someone else who is going through something similar. It might not be the same struggle, but the pain can be very like yours. I hope that with these letters, you can see that you are not alone in your pain and that there are ways to overcome your feelings. It is okay that you cant see them yet, but you will.

Writing these letters has given me the opportunity to share my experience with you. Try to read at least one letter every day, and I hope you can begin to find comfort in your time of need. I hope this will help you to open up a conversation with your loved ones or to write down your own experiences and feelings. There are so many ways to express ourselves choose something that makes you comfortable. Dont give up hope yet. I hope these letters can help you to work on healing yourself or even to ask for the support you need. It is out there, I promise. Dont give up.

in the deep black sky

even though a million miles apart

the sun still finds a way

to bring light to the moon,

and you expect me

to leave you in this darkness?

Dear Stranger,

I see you trying hard to cover up your pain, to pretend it doesnt hurt to breathe. That, with every beat of your heart, your chest aches and tears burn deep down in your throat. It doesnt matter if you saw it coming or not; it hurts. The pain feels so deep, so primal, that you dont know if you will survive it. I understand that emotional pain hurts as deeply as physical pain, and I know you are trying to make it through this swamp of icy-cold fear. This fear threatens to shut you down forever and the pain threatens to drown you. I see you trying to control the pain, gasping for air, drowning in this pool of despair, but I also see you far too comfortable being alone, suffering through this.

You are drowning, drowning in emotion, drowning in a tide of what you feel you cannot control. I know you understand that peace is on the shore and that the shore is within reach, but like those drifting out to sea, those who are consumed in the moment, you are panicking. Terrified that you will never breathe again, that you will be dragged under once again, and some invisible force will take hold of you and pull you out so deep that the shore will no longer be an option. I understand the emotions and feelings that are causing you pain are like waves washing over you. They pull you under, overwhelm you, tire you out until you feel nothing but exhaustion. I see you with the lifebuoy in your hand, your will to live slowly extinguishing while you decide whether floating in this sea of pain will be easier than the effort it will take to get you to shore. I am waiting there for you with a blanket of love to wrap you in tightly. I am with you even when you finally decide that the comfort of the shore requires too much effort. When you choose to hold on to your pain, not realising that it is the one thing that both keeps you afloat and threatens to eventually drown you.

I see you suspended in your loneliness, choosing to wallow in your pain rather than swim to shore. Your friends call out to you from the shore; they reassure you that you do not need to face the pain alone anymore. And I see you turn your back on them, crying in shame, deeply uncomfortable with what is happening. I know that you fear both the safety of their support and the comfort of being alone. I see the tears flow down your cheeks but you have become so used to the pain that you fear no longer feeling it. Your eyes beseech me; they ask why I do not swim out to you, why I do not ease your pain and help you through your exhaustion while I guide you to the shore. The thing is, I know that you shouldnt go into the water with someone who is drowning. Your sheer panic and desperate need to be saved may drown both of us while I seek to pull you ashore. So I have thrown you the lifebuoy, dear stranger, and I am here, comforter in hand.

Right now, you need to start kicking, not to keep afloat, but to propel yourself to the shore. I will be here, helping to pull you in. I will listen to your cries of pain and I will weep with you, but together, we will find solutions and you will keep swimming to shore. I will call out instructions: Stop swimming, put your feet down. You are waist-deep, almost there. Keep talking to me and I will help you find the positives, the reasons you should allow yourself to be healed. Keep wading through the pain; knee-deep now, you are almost there. I am here, affirming that your pain is real but helping you find incentives to keep moving towards the shore. Ankle-deep, you no longer need the lifebuoy. Let go of that which caused you this horrible, intense pain, and allow it to drift back out to sea without you. Keep your eyes on me; dont look back. Remember the pain but do not allow it to take you back in. Find comfort in me and in your friends.