We live in a fake world - everyone puts on appearances to "fit in" and be "acceptable" to society. Those who don't are seen as non conformists/rebels/outcasts...i.e. Not normal! Normalcy is a state of being which humans strive to be in, abnormal is not cool. Be it in our professional/personal lives, humans have an inherent need to blend in and behave in a manner they are expected to. For the purpose of writing something meaningful (as you can see even I'm being a conformist and writing what you want to read) - I will set the context in the work space, as that is where we spend a majority of our "productive" lives.
Scene 1 : The pretty lady in HR breeze's into the office (albeit 2 hrs after the "official" work hours), smiles vivaciously at everyone she passes and greets them with an over enthusiastic Hiiii!
Input : 32 teeth smile, over enthusiastic greeting, wafts of perfume, swish swish of a short summer dress.
Process : Everyone's brain (from the office geek to the building stud) makes them believe they are special
Output : Happy employees, indifferent HR
Those of us in the coveted HR department are likely to identify with this scene - we've either seen it happen or made it happen at some point in our careers. It doesn't matter if you're having the worst day of your life, it doesn't matter whether you want to punch whoever you are greeting so hard his face contours inwards. Our job dictates that we be pleasant, and keep our people happy - irrespective of how you feel about having small talk with the creep who never talks to your face.
So now that we've pretty much established that we need to put on this pleasant persona of a forever happy, cheery go lucky - when does just right become too much? The answer is simple - when people begin to see past your pretentious makeup and see the ugly behind it! Humans are not genetically stupid (maybe some are) - they can tell when saccharine sweet is laced with bitter. There is a very thin line that divides believable fake and abnormally obvious fake. So what does one do when one sees an obvious fake? One fakes of course - because thats the expected thing to do. Fake cuts fake. People are so used to being fake that its become part of their inherent nature - they fake so much they often forget who they really are...or are too busy faking to realize what they are doing.
People do however claim to be "their real selves" infront of "certain people" - these claims are as fake as the people. Humans can't be true to themselves so being "real" infront of others is really far fetched. We lie to ourselves to make ourselves feel better, feel loved, feel special...to feel. When Shakespeare spoke about the world being a stage - he forgot to mention that we are so engrossed in the parts that we play that we forget the face behind the mask. The purpose of this post is not to give "gyan" about "un-faking" it or becoming a better person - I say keep being fake, its required for survival. Smile when you want to cry, scream when you want to hear pin drop silence, sprint when you want to walk - because it's required, it's what you need to do to survive the big bad world and its big bad people. Keep being fake but don't ever forget the face behind the mask - take some time off, run away to the mountains and try to discover who you are behind all the fakeness. You might be a techie by profession but an artist inside...you may hate kids but be an excellent mother...you may be the happiest person in the world who is broken inside. Don't do it right now...but do it before you hit the grave else you'll die a fake man/woman surrounded by fake people grieving their loss.
Don't fight the fakeness - you can't win, just don't let it cloud your core being. Because that's not worth it :)
Note : None of the events stated in the aforementioned post bear any resemblance to anyone living/dead/undead - just because you can identify with the episode doesn't mean it actually happened. It is merely a figment of my over active imagination.
- Fakely Yours Truly
Scene 1 : The pretty lady in HR breeze's into the office (albeit 2 hrs after the "official" work hours), smiles vivaciously at everyone she passes and greets them with an over enthusiastic Hiiii!
Input : 32 teeth smile, over enthusiastic greeting, wafts of perfume, swish swish of a short summer dress.
Process : Everyone's brain (from the office geek to the building stud) makes them believe they are special
Output : Happy employees, indifferent HR
Those of us in the coveted HR department are likely to identify with this scene - we've either seen it happen or made it happen at some point in our careers. It doesn't matter if you're having the worst day of your life, it doesn't matter whether you want to punch whoever you are greeting so hard his face contours inwards. Our job dictates that we be pleasant, and keep our people happy - irrespective of how you feel about having small talk with the creep who never talks to your face.
So now that we've pretty much established that we need to put on this pleasant persona of a forever happy, cheery go lucky - when does just right become too much? The answer is simple - when people begin to see past your pretentious makeup and see the ugly behind it! Humans are not genetically stupid (maybe some are) - they can tell when saccharine sweet is laced with bitter. There is a very thin line that divides believable fake and abnormally obvious fake. So what does one do when one sees an obvious fake? One fakes of course - because thats the expected thing to do. Fake cuts fake. People are so used to being fake that its become part of their inherent nature - they fake so much they often forget who they really are...or are too busy faking to realize what they are doing.
People do however claim to be "their real selves" infront of "certain people" - these claims are as fake as the people. Humans can't be true to themselves so being "real" infront of others is really far fetched. We lie to ourselves to make ourselves feel better, feel loved, feel special...to feel. When Shakespeare spoke about the world being a stage - he forgot to mention that we are so engrossed in the parts that we play that we forget the face behind the mask. The purpose of this post is not to give "gyan" about "un-faking" it or becoming a better person - I say keep being fake, its required for survival. Smile when you want to cry, scream when you want to hear pin drop silence, sprint when you want to walk - because it's required, it's what you need to do to survive the big bad world and its big bad people. Keep being fake but don't ever forget the face behind the mask - take some time off, run away to the mountains and try to discover who you are behind all the fakeness. You might be a techie by profession but an artist inside...you may hate kids but be an excellent mother...you may be the happiest person in the world who is broken inside. Don't do it right now...but do it before you hit the grave else you'll die a fake man/woman surrounded by fake people grieving their loss.
Don't fight the fakeness - you can't win, just don't let it cloud your core being. Because that's not worth it :)
Note : None of the events stated in the aforementioned post bear any resemblance to anyone living/dead/undead - just because you can identify with the episode doesn't mean it actually happened. It is merely a figment of my over active imagination.
- Fakely Yours Truly
4 comments:
what a fake post.. lolz.. just kidding (faking :P)
they fake so much they often forget who they really are - is this really possible ?? is it possible for a broken person to fake being happy to such an extent that he forgets that he is broken !! if yes that y should he remember the face behind the mask which is broken ?? (no, lets not have a fake argument over this)
btw the over enthusiastic hiii and the big (fake) smile from HRs get annoying after a while..
and yeah.. very well written (this time un-faking it)
haha you already sparked a debate laddu! Forgetting your true self is something that happens by design...trying to remember the face behind the mask is more of an existential need - one which may/may not be fulfilled...if you live fake nothings stopping you from dieing fake...unless you dont want to :)
Oh brilliant..
Oh brilliant..
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