Talking to the Mirror

Talking to the Mirror

“I see people. I see a lot of them. I see them all in fact. Some smiling, some laughing. Some sharing, some weeping. Some pitying, some appreciating. Some clapping, some booing. Some smoking, some drinking. Some striving, some letting go. Some sophisticated, some lethargic. Some raising voice, some staying silent. Some longing for company, some hoping for solitude. Some regretting the past, some rejoicing the memories. Some calm, some agitated. Some loving, some cursing. Some being there, some getting away. 
But as I see these traits, I encounter the fact that there is something that they all are simultaneously doing throughout their lives. They PRETEND. 
I see them with the same eyes and yet every time I meet them I face something new. Someone new, different. Someone I never met before. Someone may be so deep inside that I cannot see, or may be shallow enough to evaporate. I see them with the same memories and yet I form new ones the difference being not only vast but disturbing. It makes them all new, and new is something expected to be rejoiced. I would, only if I didn’t find it dangerous. It makes me feel weird and everyone else, anonymous.
I see them all but when I talk to them, all that meets my five senses and the conscious that governs them, is the differences that they possess. And maybe that is how the design works. The differences are supposed to help me identify someone but it works on the contrary. It compels me not to identify myself with them. The fact is, they are not just different from me…they are different from what they were few hours ago. I see change, the law of nature, showing its darker side.  Change ironically, being a constant in the personalities of all men and women. It haunts me that I found something else which has become an unshaken feature of mankind. IGNORANCE. I see how ignorance causes hypocrisy which in turn paves the path for social destruction. 
I wondered how could they love somebody and at the very same moment hate somebody else when we are all but the same, given all our differences. I wondered how could they have peace with somebody when they have the anger and agony of such potential that they could kill. It would disturb me to learn that the man found guilty for raping a woman had a sister and a mother he lived with. It would shake me to realize that the ones who sold minors for money and lead them to physical, social, mental and sexual exploitation for the rest of their lives, did it for their family.  It would take me a while to swallow over the fact that the teacher who would shape and judge his students on the basis of grades instead of character and knowledge, actually knows the worth of them both and yet priorities material over righteousness. It would pinch me to the bone to see a father or a priest, guilty of social violence on his wife even if he is close to the ultimate source of love and compassion. 
I wondered and wondered and wondered till I realised, IT’S NOT TRUE. The priest is miles away from realization of his god and the teacher has a flaw in his own set of values and thus, priorities. That the father who runs the wicked business of human trafficking, can never really be doing it for his children and the rape guilty never really saw a respectable lady in either his sister or his mother.  That one could never gain peace while holding that piece of anger and that one cannot love eternally and unconditionally while having that feeling of hate simultaneously. 
It bugged me until I realised that it is all MAKE-BELIEVE and the characters of ignorance and hypocrisy are actually prevailing today. Now, I did get to know what wasn’t real but I was yet to learn what is real. So I cursed and judged for a long while.
But then, I looked into the mirror and wondered…
‘Is it just them… or is it WE?’ 
Be it bribing the cops or bullying someone online. Be it disrespecting our elders or exploiting juniors in the name of ragging. Be it judging a girl by her looks or judging a guy by his bank balance. Be it, not caring for the poor and hungry or dishonest tax paying. Be it something as underrated as breaking someone’s heart.
 And after all this, pretending we aren’t wrong and not accepting that we need to improve. We all have flaws. We are all a part of this SOCIAL HYPOCRISY. 
At that moment, standing in front of my bodily image, I realised that the cleansing process must begin with self. 
I see us all and I positively embrace the fact that the day people start talking to the mirror, social hypocrisy will start to abolish.”
He blinked his eyes as they started to burn. He realised he had stared at the mirror for too long.

-Akshat Vyas