My Autobiography – My first Lie
“Being honest with oneself is the most difficult thing. It’s much easier to be honest with others”
My first major lie, that is. As children I am sure all of us would have lied about small things to our parents. But one lie that I told my parents when I was studying in second standard, made me remain (almost) honest for the next decade or so!
It was nothing big, actually. There was a drawing competition announced by the school and to participate, students had to give one rupee and register their names. I got the money from my parents but instead of registering my name in the drawing competition, I suddenly decided to go to the canteen during break and bought four chocolates to eat. Maybe I thought four was too much for me, so I gave two of them to my brother who was studying in the same school and lied to my mother that I registered my name by paying that one rupee.
On the day of the competition, I bought a sketch pen set, new pencil, chart paper, etc. Well, I had to hide my lie, right? I went to the school and obviously found that my name was not included in the list, but I still went and asked the teacher to check. She confirmed it and asked me to give my sketch pen set and everything else to someone who had registered but did not bring these things. I remember getting some of the sketch pens back in a blunt condition.
I went and told my mother that I drew a great drawing and coloured it with sketch pens. I am not sure how much she believed in my lie because on the day when I gave the chocolates to my brother, he promptly reported about it to my mother.
There used to be teachers-parents meetings and I guess there were four of them in a year. On the mornings of such meets, I used to become very scared thinking that my lie would be exposed if the topic of drawing competition came up during the individual discussions. So, I was filled with fear whenever a teachers-parents meet came up!
Fortunately or unfortunately the drawing competition was never discussed and my fear kept extending. During these days, my brother would always ask me about how I got the money to buy him chocolates, adding fuel to the fire. I would reply that I got it in the ground while playing.
During the end of that year, my parents decided to shift us to another school for the next year. Boy, wasn’t I relieved? No more teachers-parents meet in this school, and no more fear about my lie getting exposed!
After a few months, I evaluated this incident. Was all the fear worth it? Wasn’t one lie, leading to another and then another? Had my parents come to know about the lie, would they not think twice before giving me any money in future? I was even happy to change my school for a silly lie!
And all this for what? Four chocolates that I got in return!
I then decided that I will not lie once again, because it was not worth all the unnecessary hassles. I mostly followed it for the next decade or so, only to break it brutally during my college final year. And break it again a few times during the initial years of my employment.
There was one quote that I read during these times, which single handedly influenced me to speak the truth.
“Liars do not worry that no one believes them. But they worry that they are not able to believe anybody”
The truth in this quote, hit me hard. Really hard. Read it once again, and think about it to understand the enormity of the message conveyed by this wonderful quote.
Destination Infinity
sach ka samna
its great that you followed in the future never to lie
Eventually, sabko sach ka samna karna padta hai. Abhi nahi to, kuch sal badh!
Destination Infinity
Liars also need to have a good memory. 🙂 That’s a difficult job!
Yeah, it takes a lot of efforts to cover up their lies. One advantage is – they can try to write short stories, because they get so creative at times! 🙂
Destination Infinity
True 😆
I can never be a good liar I think.
Oh boy i was a bad boy in school , I am sure I have lied a lot many times , especially when we escaped ot get Paranthas at middle of night.. or go home for holiday .. my god so many times made a member of family sick to get leave …
Makes me ashamed now thinking all about those
Bikram’s
Not able to be a good liar, is a a good thing. I guess all of us lie for small things, but even that can be avoided.
Destination Infinity
this quote is so so true..
also my fave one ..what a web we weave when we first practice to deceive.
The situation is much worser for people who believe in their own lies!
Destination Infinity
How true! Life is like that!
Yeah, life teaches us many things by being like that!
Destination Infinity
That was an important lesson you learnt.. And one that stayed with you.
It did stay for a considerable amount of time with me. I just hope that I will be able to follow these lessons in future too.
Destination Infinity
The last quote is superb! Yes, we have to go on lying for covering one lie. And we have to remember what we told earlier! It is easy to tell the truth!
I can’t lie at all! My face will hold a board that I am lying!
I feel that there is no need to lie. We mostly lie because of our assumptions and fears. If we understand that, perhaps there is no need to lie.
Destination Infinity
lying had become part of my daily routine when i was young..teachers will write notes in dairy and will ask to get it signed from parents and my parents never came to know how i myself managed to copy their signs…my parents thought there wasn’t any complaints against me from school….but learnt a lesson when i was caught doing the same…
life’s been a lesson every second since then !
regards
rahul
My parents always signed whatever I gave them. So, I didn’t have to use alternate techniques 😉
Destination Infinity