Lying Gracefully

Strictly in the top three of my mandate for the year 2010 , is "to perfect the art of lying", something that was always on the agenda but never really exercised, for the dearth of exogenous opportunities to lie indiscriminately.

The infatuation to lie started when I was , if I remember correctly, somewhere between the tender age of six and eight, when I saw mummy telling somebody on the phone , that she wasn't at home and was not to be available for the ten days hence. Fed decently with the " jhooth bolna galat baat hai " dose , I could never imagine her lying , and I had all these theories bubbling in my head , " What if she's not really herself ? ".  I know it's hard to imagine how a boy that young can zero in on such a twisted logic, but I guess the idiot box had a subconscious part to play in that.

While a part of me was irked by her ideological hippocracy, the other part was already getting prepared to confront her sacrilegious lie. But alas, before I could exploit this opportunity, I was carefully shown the door and was told to mind my own business. A little appreciative as I was of her ability to lie with such a straight face , with not a single wrinkle on the forehead, it vetted in me this fervent desire to convolute this art , the art of lying  ,irrevocably in my personality. And mind you , this is not a genetic trait, the other members of my family are rather decent and grant me innumerable opportunities to lie , without the slightest inhibition of the fear of being caught.

So , that was that, and I have been in practice mode ever since. Actually , I think , right now, I'm in the middle of this wilderness , where I just might reveal more than what can be consensually considered comely. More appropriately, I'd take a tea break , and return with a rather " sane" state of mind.        

Continued..

It's not as if I have never been lied to or if I'm the most virtuoso of liars myself, on the contrary , my pretentious and far from truth prevarications tend to blurt out their mischief almost peremptorily.

However, as a general phenomenon,  a lie , shadowed well enough in the canopy of pleasing words , has always caught a fraction of my admiration. It'll be hard on my ego to accept , but some of the people I've come to admire the most , are the ones who have managed to make me count my chickens, almost consistently.

I know , after writing all this , my moral integrity would already be in question, but one has to accept , be it reluctantly , that lying sometimes , is a much simpler proposition. A lie for the benefit of mankind , is technically, no lie at all, and therefore all the more unworthy of mention and bereft of excitement. It's the other variety that intrigues me , the much more abominable category of lie. 

So , I was soliloquizing , about what makes a conscious lie all the more potent and hard hitting. Is it just a poker face or a corrupt self conscience? The more sleepy me forces me to conclude that it's both.

On a personal note, if I believe in the institution of lying? I would say : No, I don't. But , come to think of it, if at all I were a "lie evangelist" myself, I wouldn't be telling the truth, would I ?  ;-)