A mask of what you are not!

Once, my English teacher made a remark about students in my class. "Everybody is wearing a mask of what they are not!". It was a truth!! I wonder why everyone including me is behaving like this... In this society, we have some responsibilities. I think someone defined this type of responsibilities as "manners"!! And we act like what we are not and makes a good impression with what we are not. The teacher's explanation about his philosophy is making a little sense here.In the school, we may behave different when teachers are not around us. When we were in the school, some teachers used to complain about the need of showing respect to teachers. We were advised to greet teachers whenever we see teachers in my school and nothing is different in my college also. No matter what we feels like, even if we are facing the ugliest morning in our life, we are supposed to greet our teachers "Good Morning"(preferably with a smiling face) when we see them in the school(A recorded voice can do better). For some teachers, a good student is a student who wishes the teachers in a polite manner(Unfortunately,I felt so).

The same thing can be seen in many aspects of our life. I doubt whether it is a show off or not! But, it created some illusions about the views of many people. The unit of measurement of behaviour of us depends upon creating illusions like this. I felt like I am cheating and for every such activity, I have an artificial look. Many people used to say that the character of a person depends on what he study from his family. But, I cannot support that fact because, my behaviour in my family and in public are different. I used to act so weird in my home while I used to act a little "descent" in the public(Or may be viseversa.It depends on how far you know me!!)..

I searched for the exact meaning of the word show-off in the dictionary. It says that the verbal meaning of the word "show-off" is to Display proudly or act ostentatiously or pretentiously. If I analyse this, being proud of what you are is not a mistake but, being proud of what you are not is a mistake. We have to know ourselves to behave like what we are!! I have a friend, who used to be a normal man. But one day, he changed his hair style, he pierced his ears and many of us laughed at him. And there was a rumour that everything he do is a show-off!! I felt a little irritated to see him at the first time but, later I realized that many of our fellow college mates was doing the same thing. I think, this matter is a small fight for survival for some people. If everybody is showing off what they are not by creating an illusion of what they can never be, we are supposed to take part in that competition. I think I am facing a similar problem now!

Beyond all these, there is an another dark part in this subject. I have seen people who are really proud of being a jerk! For some example, "I was a naughty guy in my child hood and I kicked my teacher once", "I troubled my parents when I was doing my SSLC", "I am a born trouble maker to my native"... Those people are so proud of being a negative character. And I can see a heroic-adventurous view in their narration. I had a friend before, who was just like the above narration. Actually, he was not a real villain but, he used to convince that he is a villain. The primary objective of these people is to create a good impression about themselves(The most frequently used word in their narration of their own story will always be an "I"). But, I felt so bad about this kind of show off...

But, if an advertisement comes with a caption "We are the best" can I say that they are doing a show off? If a candidate in an interview says that "he is the best", can I say that he is doing a show-off? If an honest student says that he is really good in studies, may I say that he is doing a show-off?. In this world, you see a lot of films, I used to notice one thing. The hero will not do anything bad. May be he will be wrong but, he will never be bad!! So, behind this tendency we used to have an intention to make others believe that we are good and we like to be a good man in the society. So, a show-off of such sort can't be mistake.

In some aspects, our world is full of illusions(Looks like I am stuck with the word "illusion" now-a-days. I found a reason too, that's what I used to do and see in this world). But, what is the problem with creating an illusion if you can hide the reality forever! Such illusions can create some sort of ability to develop confidence! Show-off in such situations is inevitable. But, I think, show-off without intention can be avoided!

Faithfully

Raghu