THE MASK HAS TO FALL


















“What happens when people open their hearts?"

"They get better.”

― Haruki Murakami


A funny thing about living in this world is this: When others fail, I have loads of encouraging words. “Don’t lose heart… Failure is the stepping stone to success,” I console them magnanimously, and almost like a sage! But, when I fail, I am harsh on myself: “Stupid idiot… Useless fellow… A loser,” and all that. Instead of a gentle pat on my back, I get from myself a nasty kick!


So, that’s the familiar funny story: I am gentle for others, but harsh for myself!


I, always, have a helpline for others’ problems… When they are sad and lost, I seem to have solutions… Plenty of them. But, when I am sad and lost, my world seems to be dark and hopeless.


Yes, it’s true: each one of us needs a helpline. Just as how, when others approach us, we are ever willing to offer help and advice – emotional help – yes, just as that, if we approach others, in our need, we shall find enough help, advice and support…


To seek help from others, takes a lot of honesty and humility. The mask has to fall, the ego has to melt. Else, seeking help from others simply cannot happen. And, till that time, the silent suffering will continue… Often, till we are crushed completely!


The help-seeking state is a state of vulnerability. We have to open up… show our wounds, our pain, our confusion, our anxiety and fear, our guilts, regrets and anger…


He-Men and Iron-Men, Super-Men, Spider-Men and Bat-Men, Tarzans and Phantoms… None of these characters lives here in this real world. Their world is confined to the comic books and the silver screens. The real world is made up of real people with real feelings… the fragile ones… Sunny at times, cloudy at times… Jubilant at times, depressing at times… A gung-ho feeling of living for two hundred years… a dark feeling of ending it all, right now!


That’s how this roller-coaster ride called ‘Life’ is, for all of us. If any one of looks like a He-Man from outside, let’s not get a complex… Hello, real people feel happy and sad, victorious and defeated… on cloud nine and down hell…


The strongest of us need to seek help… Like a gentle bamboo, we need to bend when wind blows hard. For, the Oak that resists, only comes crashing down!


Therefore, it’s okay to be human!



GERALD D’CUNHA

Pic.: www.publicdomainpictures.net

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