MYTHOMANIA

Honesty and integrity are two attributes I value most in life.  A friend of mine often says that either I am a reincarnation of Harischandra or his descendent.  (I made a mention about this in an earlier blog!).  That’s a little exaggeration, but it is a fact that I get irritated with dishonest people.

I had a classmate, whom I admired a lot.  Even at a young age, she was very independent and confident and absolutely uninhibited.  Her social skills were excellent and impressed everyone around.  She used to talk to me a lot and I discussed her at home often.  Based on my inputs, my people at home somehow felt that most of the things she told me were untrue and it was hard for me to digest their judgment.  I met her a few years ago, after a long time and after we exchanged pleasantries, I enquired about her friend in her neighbourhood, she often used to talk about while we were studying together.   While we were at college, my friend informed me that, her friend (who was studying in another college) secretly married her boyfriend, as he was going abroad for higher studies and decided to be discrete till they settled down.  When I met my friend almost after a decade, I got curious to know if her friend was still married to the same guy.  I got the shock of my life when my friend denied having known any friend by that name.  Like Kamal Haasan who tried to draw Sridevi’s attention in the climax scene of the Tamil film Moondram Pirai (Sadma in Hindi and Vasantakokila in Telugu), I narrated all the stories she told me earlier to facilitate her recollect the past. Alas! She could not recollect anything.  I am still unable to come to terms with this episode.

When I started working, one of the office assistants who worked with me was a very talented and charismatic person.  Though a school dropout, he was very intelligent and artistic and his presentation of even a mundane job was very good.  He was a poet and a artist and made wonderful artifacts from junk.  He was also a habitual liar.  He lived in a world of his own and often narrated stories about his imaginary friends, lover, social work, and the wonderful opportunities that were knocking at his door.  All of us (I & my colleagues) could make out from the tone and modulation of his voice and body language, whether what he was telling us was “real” or “reel”. (Reel is a euphemism for enjoyable lies in Tamil). The stories were narrated in a very interesting manner and I should confess, all of us enjoyed them thoroughly and we even started keeping track of the stories and the characters.  The most blatant story he had narrated was that of a lady he had met in his neighbourhood, who was not only my look-alike, but was also my namesake.  The only difference was my characteristic smile.  He narrated all this in a very convincing manner.  This guy in reference was not reporting to me directly and hence I didn’t have any clash with him.

But, when I took up another assignment in a different organization, I had a tough time.  I had to manage the office independently and handling the office boys and security guards who lied for silly reasons was very irritating.  I had to work really hard to initiate them into speaking truth.  I had to constantly monitor them, remember things and cross verify every transaction and advise them often not to lie.  It was really embarrassing to reprimand adults for lying.  Over a period of time, things were streamlined and those who reported to me understood the need to be honest, except one guy, who was a compulsive liar and was unreliable.  He did not deliver as expected and every time he was sent out on an official work, he would vanish from the scene and return with funny excuses.  He was also stupid and could never tell a believable lie.    To bring about a change, I started collecting fine, every time he lied and managed to collect a few hundred rupees.  With my perseverance, he changed and tried to be as honest and transparent as possible with me.  Reforming this boy into a reliable and trustworthy person is one of my biggest achievements.

The stimulus for this blog is the topic for discussion in a popular Tamil TV show recently telecast, wherein the participants spoke about how dishonest an average man is, in the present scenario. Most of the participants felt that there is nothing wrong in being dishonest and it is absolutely impossible to be honest in the present day world.  While harmless lies are entertaining, serious lies are an indication of erosion of values.  Is the epidemic of mythomania on the increase?