Truth or Dare

As a child, I was told that to lie is to sin. Now what does a child know about sins, so to bring things to a clearer picture, it was explained to me, that if I tell lies, which is a very bad thing to do, I will have to face punishment, God will punish me, and will send me to hell, which is a very uncomfortable place. I tried to live a secure life, as a God-fearing little girl, never lying, always saying the truth. But life is not easy, not even for a little child. Soon enough, circumstances arose, when I would either have to tell a lie and face the wrath of God, or tell the truth, and face a sound beating from my parents. In the face of such horns of dilemma, going to hell seemed a far away prospect, even slightly amendable if I pray hard to God, but my parents looked far more dangerous. Thus came out the first untrue words from my lips, and I slipped slightly downwards, towards the gates of hell.

The results of this sinful act turned out to be very much in my favor, I got away scot free from the situation. But then I prayed hard, with all my mind and soul, asking God to forgive this one time, and I would never do it again, little did I know, that this promise was my second lie, to God and to myself. A second situation soon arose, and with a little more hesitation, I sinned again. The results by now were looking pretty neat, and the burden on my tiny soul was growing heavier. This time when I prayed for forgiveness, I dared not promise that this would never happen again. I was saving myself from getting into another trap of lies, I was opening a new path for myself, the path of crime, sin and treachery, on which, I didn't know back then, I would be cat-walking my way through.

By the third time, the little pious part of my soul had resigned. I knew that I had previously sealed my entry to hell, and this new lie wouldn't really be anything worse. So I lied, I lied left and right, up and down, big and small, here, there and everywhere. I had started my journey down this treacherous path with a mere " I didn't do it" for a broken plate, and now I am standing on an ever-increasing pile, throwing caution to the wind, knowing, I am not the only one building their own empire of falsehood. We are all in it together.

We truly have developed this habit, where it is not a big deal to slip out an innocent lie that'll do no harm to anybody. We cautiously say bigger lies to save our skins at times. Sometimes we lie to save others as well. At times we lie so that our principles may live, do what you will with that information. And the worse of the lot, there are those lies that we feed ourselves, consciously or otherwise, to make life a bit easier to deal with. Now life will remain what it has always been, difficult, not a bed of roses, and none of that can be changed with all the truth of our lives. But when we face ourselves at the end of the day, or look back at the path we have walked over the time, there remain some lies that look unnecessary, which were better of unspoken. Some lies about us, the ones where we tell things that we should have done, or how we should have been, yet we are not. When asked why,the most common answers that come to us are that the situations have turned us this way, or life itself has conditioned us in this way, and this, is one of the biggest lies that we tell ourselves. The last and most damaging lie in this series is that, now what's done is done, and nothing can be changed, we have to live with it.

In a continuous journey like life, where constantly people are changing, situations are arising, problems are being solved, and miracles are happening here and there, we can do away with the last lie, that we have to live with how we are. Change is the only constant, and we are definitely subject to change, just that we need to wish to bring it to ourselves. If we spare a few minutes of our ever-so-busy lives, taking time to judge whether all the things that we tell about ourselves to others, and that we believe within, are true or not, a couple of facts are bound to catch our attention. Here at this point, it is like a truth or dare situation. Do we start telling the truth, where we are not so perfect, not so ideal, not so adorable, but a very truthful version of ourselves? Or do we take up a dare to simply change ourselves to turn the lie into the truth, and become a better version? Truth, or Dare?

None of the choices is easy. This game we are playing against life, and when has life ever been lenient with us? If we just sit down to think on this line, we have started the game, and now we have to choose. Well, of course, there is always the easier, more convenient choice of calling quits on the game and simply continue with our well-polished lies, who would ever know? Nobody except us. But then, we will always know, that little tug at the back of our mind, that little prick in the corner of our heart will come back now and then, time and again. This is a game for the courageous, for the ones who can take up a challenge and complete it. And it is upon us to decide, are we game for it?