Nathaniel
Hawthorne from the book The Scarlet Letter remarked, “No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to
himself and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to
which may be the true.” We all wear
masks. We pretend to become the person, the people around us will like. It is
said that we display our true self when we are under a guise. What if it’s the
other way around? What if the disguise is a way to mask our true feelings? How
many of us want any of us to see us as we really are? We become the person that
the others want us to see. Taking the popular scenario when friends and
strangers come visiting.. What do we do? Straighten the cushions, kick the
books under the bed and put away the letter you were writing? We put on our social face.
During all this,
we forget to be the real us. In fact we forget whether we have a real self at
all since we are constantly playing different roles and responsibilities. That
is why “Tell me something about yourself” is often the hardest question to
answer. The harder we strive to become ourselves, the more we realise that
we’ve probably lost ourselves in between the roles we play in real life.
Not always do we
hide the cruel or unkind facades of our nature. More often than not, we lock
away the glorious, beautiful and colourful parts of our nature deep down in our
hearts. We become what we project. It is said that no one can wear a mask for
very long. This is true. But someone can wear different masks for a very long
time.
It is only when
we are left to ourselves; times when we see ourselves reflected in the mirror, do
we dare to question, ‘Is this really me?? How many masks could I be wearing??
Who am I when I am not looking??’
Do we ever
become what we actually are?? We are just a story. A story which we tell others.
The one modified to suit the audience. The real story waiting to be told.
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