Celebrated writer Earnest Hemmingway said that ‘in order to write about life, first you must live it’.
Me’ a septuagenarian thinks that living for seven decades is somewhat good enough for me to write about life, men and matters.
The journey of my life has been full of varied experiences as a child, son, brother, husband, father, friend, student, player, traveler, social worker, government official, business man, journalist, lawyer, above all a loving and loyal partner.
As life passes us by, we all tend to become keen observers of men, manners and their idiosyncrasies and all this while the one aspect that catches my fancy most time than others is the double- facedness of human beings or pretence in simpler terms.
Life is a curious amalgam of contradictions; existence commences with life but the other side is reality of death.
In fact if we seriously view everything, we will find that there are two of everything, man and woman, night and day, love and hate, sorrow and happiness, good and bad, angel and devil, weak and mighty and so on ; we have come to take these for granted but this very simple two-some are many times not very palatable.
Yes, I am talking of double standards we often maintain or see in present day society. To say plainly ‘we all are afflicted by this malevolence’.
We have one set of values for our own use and different one for others.
We are gentle and polite, smiling and welcoming and calm and courteous on the face of it but in reality may be opposite of it.
Inwardly, we may be seething with how one has treated us or cursing them for each breath they take.
We quite well know in our hearts of heart that our behavior has not been very healthy and lament over not saying what be initially wanted to say , but the fact is often one is not brave enough to speak the true mind ,rather one excuses oneself by believing that being diplomatic is important to keep the peace which is true to an extent as the other person is merrily unaware and we have prevented ourselves from creating any negativity.
But is it this simple? Isn’t this behaviour showcase of arrogance that we have been able to camouflage our feelings so well that the other is not smart enough to know? Human interaction is not just a bouquet of words, it is mostly made up of feelings, vibes and auras that everyone who comes in contact with realises even if these maybe undecipherable to most.
Hence why for our own peace it is important that we find ways to convey our messages truly yet not rudely. It is a way of life which can be chosen albeit with some effort but one that won’t be in vain for it will bring greater peace and contentment as we progress in life.
Like the Geeta propagates ‘karm kar , phal ki iccha mat kar”