The Mask and The Muse....

"God has given you one face,and you make yourself another"
                                                                                       -William Shakespeare

    Whenever it has so happenned that the worldy situations proclaimed a truth of my life,which I was not particularly happy to conform with,I have been told,"Maybe that is how it was meant to be..."     I believe in destiny...I believe we are all meant to be something,to be someone,we were born to be a certain person...yes,a certain person...a person which we are but we never live...its just like another colourful mask languishing in the overflowing cupboard of human emotions....
   Simple things...you did much rather have had a pav bhaji but chose a lasagne...you would have taken that sweet teddy but you chose a picture frame for your friend...we say because its more "appropriate"....or is it just more convenient to shut ourselves off behind this pretence and save ourselves the misery the vulnerability that being real comes with....its not about stigma,its not about being taunted....its about keeping yourself safe...safe from whom,the person you call your soulmate?The person whom you call a "chaddi-buddy"?Or the person whom you call "Dad"?Or simply,from yourself?
I think most of us are rather afraid of themselves...somewhere we are too afraid to let ourselves out...
But again,by keeping ourselves shut behind those self-created barriers,we lose the chance to experience the beauty of those moments of being just ourselves....opening our barriers,going beyond the coccoons of propriety...if we just stop judging people with the rusted yardsticks of old,we can just find beautful persons behind those "wrong" masks,true friends behind the "dont mix" tags,a muse behind the "bastard".....
  It just depends on how we chose to look at it,whether we look at what the world wants us to see or whether we use our own eyes...its time we stopped acting,and moved the props,because the view beyond is sure to be much more enjoyable...the life beyond much more livable....


We are so accustomed to disguise ourselves to others that in the end we become disguised to ourselves.  ~François Duc de La Rochefoucauld


Lets be something more than just a disguise.....Lets be US.

Of Aspirations and Adulations....

West Indies-174/7(39 overs)...the air in the TV room is cheery,evident from the intermittent shouts coming up to my room on the first floor...just an hour ago though the story was quite,if not fully different.The faces bore a resigned anger,ranging from irritation to frustration....and while I went out to vent some of my own frustration,my friend put up a point which nags me often enough but never enough to speak it out loud.Or let me say the truth-I am too afraid of the retorts so to say....
   Lets say one of us works in a MNC...and has screwed up some project.Sure,he is in the boss's line of fire,the subject of ridicule of his colleagues and maybe some not-so-well-wishers.But do people swear to kill him?Do some hundreds of people run to wreck his home...burn his effigies?I think not.Then why that bunch of 20-odd people?Because they have chosen something as a profession that is the passion for half the population of the country?Or because they have "chosen" to make themselves public property?
    Seriously,the people who partake such nonsensical behavior go back home and have a good nights sleep.But then who is there to watch the players slog out from the wee hours of the morning to eerie hours of the night.Why are they criticised when they are found partying?Dont other people with jobs party?
   I firmly believe every person has his or her own set of responsibilities,own priorities....you cant thrust your own ambitions on them.That too for the selfish reason that you want your entertaiment.Yes,its just that for most of us.A source of entertainment,something to talk about.Thats it.Who gives a thought about those who get injured and lose their careers?About how much they sacrifice when they come out in the field looking to fulfill the ambitions of some 100 crore hearts?Some fainthearted people,they must be!
Why cant we let it remain a game...why cant we treat the players as we do other people...why cant we accept that they are human,they make their faults.And they have their strenghts.Just as we dont want our neighbours peeking into our bedrooms,we also shouldn't peek into others....what they do on the field should be left just there,on the field,where it belongs.
  At the end of the day,they are adults,who know what they want and hopefully what they have to do get what they want.And for them,each match is much more than the final result...they have a lot at stake.A Lot.
 So why dont we just leave them to fight their own battles?Because somewhere,we cant fight theirs,and they cant fight ours.
Now India has won the match...all we care about...so nobody now really minds Yuvraj's womanising ways or Dhoni's dares...till times change.Which,for their sake,I hope are for the better.
    Amen.