Sunday, May 20, 2007

A Stranger’s Masquerade


This post is in response to this week's prompt at Sunday Scribblings: Masks.

She grew up learning that they all needed to wear masks. She was practically fed with details every single day on what masks to wear and when.

When she was three, her mum asked her to say “please” when she had to request something, or “thank you” when she had to display her gratitude, especially with people whom we grammatically categorize as “third person”; nonetheless she never bothered to say a “please” or “thank you” at home with her parents or siblings.
She was told to wear a mask.

When she was seven, her parents told her to smile and be gentle with relatives, friends (other inconsequential people); people that didn’t mean anything to her, but she had to behave that way so she didn’t eventually hurt anyone.
She was told to wear a mask.

When she was twelve, she was told not to brag about her test scores (the fact was, she was over-confident that she was scoring better than more than half of the students in her class). But no, she shouldn’t! She should be polite.
She was told to wear a mask.

When she was sixteen, she was told to hide her emotions and pretend that all was well, when in reality, nothing was. Again, she was told to wear a mask, or not!

Over the years, she has come to realize that now she’s actually being herself outside home and wearing a mask at home!

Click here for more masks at Sunday Scribblings.


19 comments:

Aditi said...

in the scores section u went from she to me...
but i hate masks.. i mean they are ok for ppl u dont know but when u have to pretend in front of ppl who are supposed to be the closest to you.. defeats the purpose of them being close doesnt it? atleast in my opinion

Rob Kistner said...

Miss lyer -

Masks are thrust upon us by others everyday because people place the mask of their choice on you so they can see you through their perception of you.

I enjoyed your post.

Mimey said...

Yeah. There's a lot of mask wearing in surviving a busy world, it's good when you can find something underneath. Hard sometimes.

paris parfait said...

I don't think having good manners and showing respect for others is wearing a mask. Civilisations have always employed certain rituals with which to get along and manners are part of those rituals. Yes, we all adopt masks from time to time, but manners and masks aren't the same thing in my book.

Devil Mood said...

Wow! I love this post, it's so powerful. What a great ending, right on your face, shocking ;)
Very well writte, Miss Iyer!

Brecht said...

good one G3! guess u hv been cured of your writers 'blog' = ) Hope u hv had a great weekend! we sure did! Hugs xx

Chandramohan 'CM' Kannan said...

My (not-so) famous lines:

I have more masks than items of apparel:
Each designed with a special purpose in mind.
Some to keep my identity safe from others;
Others to enable me to hide from myself...

Yes... I wear a mask!

Patois42 said...

I think the mask we wear at home must be the heaviest. Nice post.

Anonymous said...

M.I. - wow! i like this post of yours... enjoyed every bit of it. :)

Oracle said...

over a while...sadly the mask takes over the real you...

Crafty Green Poet said...

I like your exploration of the construction of our masks, but i would also agree with paris parfait - politeness (within reason at least!) is a good thing and not in itself a mask.

deepthi vinod said...

masks are not alwys thrust upon.at times we cover ourselves with one.to ensure that our true self is not visible to others..you just ripped apart one by one and i liked it...i am sure u have none now?

Miss Iyer said...

ADITI,

Thank for pointing it out. "...to pretend in front of ppl who are supposed to be the closest to you..." Umm, something to ponder, maybe she has a reason??


ROB,

Thanks.


JEMIMA,

Very hard, but we all somehow get through with it, don't we? :) Thanks for dropping by.


ParisP,

But when civilization itself goes out of control, its hard to wait and watch and not tear off our masks. Thanks for visiting. :)

Miss Iyer said...

DevilM,

Thanks. :)


MUSH,

Thanks. Yep I did have a nice weekend. Hugs back to 'ya.


CM,

Wow, soo many? really? I didn't know.


PATOIS,

Umm, I think so too Patois. Thank you for visiting.


IDAH,

Thanks :)

Miss Iyer said...

ORACLE,

Oh I should hope not.


CGP,

Thanks. I'll remember that.


DEEPTHI,

You're right. More often than not, we wear one ourselves by choice... I guess.

I do Deepthi, I still do.

Manikandan AV said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Manikandan AV said...

whether we wear them or the society thrust upon to do it...it doesn't gets complicated until we are clear in which is the mask we wears and which one is the real face of us (or others)...all the problems are beginning from the point where we misunderstand the masks and our (or others) real identities.
until life is beautiful...

but we should have few people at least to whom we can be without any masks...

isn't it?

Miss Iyer said...

You're right Monk, but why just a few? In fact, I think we should have more and more people around us that we can be ourselves with. The more, the merrier, right? :)

Manikandan AV said...

hmmm...yeah! your are right miss.
a life like that one would be the dream of everybody...for me too...am constantly moving towards that state...and always looking for people whom ready to share themselves without any masks...i know its hard to find right people, like opening the hulls, but am sure once if we opened, we gonna have nice fruits of the relationships... :)