Saturday 20 June 2009

Pretentious Reality Realizes Pretense


And then, you realize nothing is worth it after all... people are pretentious and life itself a pretense...

When you wake up in the morning and look at yourself in the mirror... what does it reflect? It is simply an image of yourself, that image which you want to show to the world, the image that suits your needs, the one which is nothing but a facade, a phantasm of what you pretend to be...
A few days back, I entered a restroom wherein I encountered a distorted face staring hard at me... as I moved closer the face grew more and more malformed...Sullen, Smudged, Scratched, and Scarred... that face was my own...When I looked at myself in the broken shards of the mirror...it was only then that I really found myself, my identity, my true self, my reality.

Who am I in reality? The society categorizes me in the shackles of different tags... but I do not want such designations and identifications... I am what I believe I am... and unless and until I do not accept the fact that life is like the broken shards of a mirror, I can do nothing but lie to myself... Pretense has to be identified,realized and replaced with reality...the reality which is difficult to accept gets transformed into pretense and then erupts the vicious circle of a never ending masquerade...

The purpose of life is not just the pursuit of happiness but its fulfillment... Every little thing in life has its essence, its inner beauty which illumines the outer... all we need to do is realize its importance and start valuing it... the garb of pretense needs to be discarded completely to renew our lives with reality... A reality which breathes fresh air even in the environment of polluted pretense!

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20 comments/suggestions:

Bharathi said...

Wonderful post. We need to agree that pretense is in the very essence of day today life though I dont like. Even wearing clothes is a form of pretense. We tend to pretend because we are dependent on this society. we fear, if we don't pretend we may loose all the support that we derive from this society. I think fear of loosing anything is the base for pretense. What do you think is the reason for pretense?

Amit Kumar Singh said...

nice post :)
Thanx for such a wonderful post.
people are little bit apprehensive to the cause and effect, about people and about society and it finally lead them to the convoluted labyrinth of more and more complex conclusions. Their emotions and realizations get a thick cover of conventional thoughts that never let them to explore, let them to nourish.Our identity is a camouflage according to the society.

Subhayan Mukerjee said...

great thoughts indeed ... i wonder how u manage to think of such things while in the midst of everything else

Parv Kaushik said...

"who am i?" that was the question ramanna maharishi meditated upon years and years and reached the salvation.. his meditation technique consists of this one whole mantra "who am i?"

ani_aset said...

Answering this one is not that easy, else i would have achieved salvation by now...i know the method however, i think. Its to show my inner self to the outside world, which is more beautiful, true and pure. A nice thought provoking post

As the Mind Meanders said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
As the Mind Meanders said...

I see the virtues of discarding pretence... and yet... after unlearning what has been learned over years...like an onion... you peel away the layers to finally find... What??? What is real???

Is reality what you find... when you believe... that all the layers are off... which might be untrue... and reality, as you perceive it, just another pretentious distortion... a complex surreal illusion...

Can reality, when we finally find it, be empty or constant... the same homogeneous reality for everyone... after all irrespective of the journey... we all reach the same destination...

If pretence is the layers that we are expected to acquire - our differentiators, learned and gathered over time... then… Is our understanding of reality, which we find at the core that we perceive, just another form pretence in disguise… pretence formed, shaped accepted as reality by our social moral framework

I don’t know… Before your post I never bothered… Now I think I shouldn’t care too much… or take myself too seriously… look a myself in the mirror a little less…

Just live my life… and enjoy maya… while it lasts… with all its flavours… and its colours…

THANK YOU FOR MAKING ME THINK

And beautifully written as usual... I thought about this post for three days before commenting...

ARINDAM DEY said...

Nice write up... Very deep. The mask i put up before my own eyes to pretend and convince myself that i am really someone else is the worst thing the world can do to me.
Waiting for more from you. Take care...

Roshmi Sinha said...

Nicely done!


P.S. You have been tagged! Check out my latest post: "I have been tagged. Now its your turn... !!!"... for further details.

Anonymous said...

Hello Anu,

I would not call how we present ourselves to the outside world as "pretense". Because we are social animals - we need to interact with our surroundings with its associated burden of measure and conformity. Of course in its truest sense that is "pretense", but it is the basic human condition and hence I would rather term it as "conduct".

I identify with your view in more ways than one because every now and then, even I find my individuality compromised for the sake of human social terms and conditions.

But, that is the very beauty of our lives.... to strive for our individuality within the realms of our daily existence and within the integral overlapping spheres of family, friends, co-workers, etc. For what are we without all that?

The heady cocktail of our unending need for love and adulation along with the dash of hurt and despair makes us what we are.

A very engrossing blog by the way, I quite like your immersive writing. Keep it up!

- Oshkosh

+

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Vinay Sharma said...

interesting! .. different!


observe at..
http://fiercelyweird.blogspot.com/

Anonymous said...

Atleast your shedding your own pretense!
A breather from the unecessary overuse of imcomprehensible words.
Hope this stays!

Anonymous said...

Anu, it seems you have a critic now (above anon)!!!

The inalienable result in any creative enterprise – be it writing, directing, acting, singing, so on and so forth – is that you will have your share of the criticism.

In such a situation, as you are in now, it is important to know the worth of your creative output in your own terms. Simply put, Francis Ford Coppola could not have cared less if his Godfather did not particularly appeal to a seventh grader or a ‘bollywood’ buff!

Confidence in your material alone will elevate you over and above the critics.

- Oshkosh
(he who wants a signed copy of your first book – no questions asked :)

Gautam said...

i dont know what pretense is but just in case if your not sure of the purpose of your life and its become a confusion do read my post
http://lifeaajkal.blogspot.com/2009/07/life-becomes-confusion.html

Subhayan Mukerjee said...

h-e-l-l-o!!!

long time no post, no news ?

Roshmi Sinha said...

You have been tagged!

Check out my latest post: "More tags... One down, 2 more to go!" for further info...

Phoenix said...

reality is what we make it to be. oshkosh says it best. one can not shed "pretense". if you will explore you will find that what you will discover is not yourself but the "other". :) our identity is an 'amalgamation' :) as far as conduct is concerned don't do what you think you can do, do what you can do. self preservation is after all important. and you know what i'm talking about. :)

Anonymous said...

Hats-off to you, very nice post I must say, can't stop myself reading it over and over. Very commendable work :)

Confused Soul said...

A thought-provoking post :)