Liar...Liar

I have had this chronic lying ability [or is that a disability] right from….hmmm..well my birth I suppose. Thought of writing a post to share it .

Let me take you back in time, to my primary schooling days…now now..no need to go as far as 1947. It was the mid 80s and I was in my 2nd grade. The talk of the town was a movie called “enter the dragon”, Bruce lee’s personality, stunts, fights were the things every kid in my class was talking about. Not to be left behind I bluffed to the kid sitting next to me that I had seen enter the dragon thrice. That was it…some five boys surrounded me and were begging to tell the story of the movie. So there I was narrating the story of a movie, which I had not even seen in posters.

The movie started off in a dark forest with streaks of light passing through the trees…on one side was the deadly, beastly, ugly looking dragon spitting fire and on the other side our cool and whacky Bruce lee ready to kick its ass … Until my 6th grade when I finally did see the actual movie I never knew enter the dragon did not feature a dragon at all. How misleading the titles of Hollywood movies are for young impressionable minds.

So my story, rather, my graphic story telling became quite famous and I had boys surrounding me during lunchtime, intervals, even games period and listening to it. Not just my class kids but kids from other sections and even from 3rd grade were in queue. Every time I tell the story there would be a new point added probably inspired by some latest tamil movie I saw..like murattukalai or a thambikku endha ooru.

Desi twists were added so that my listeners could relate more. So we had the dragon killing Bruce lee’s family ….his father who was a honest cop in forest department, mother, sister brother et al…and Bruce lee was taking revenge on it. Kills all the dragon’s henchmen…err… I mean henchdragons and then goes on to kill the main villain dragon in the grand climax.

Incidentally there was a guy from 3rd grade who had seen the actual movie and told to my listeners that there were no dragons in the movie…But…none…not even one of my listeners believed him…In fact I am sure even if Bruce lee had personally turned up and told them the real story they would not have believed it. Reminds me of a Winston Churchill quote ..“A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on”.

Another incident, which I remember, took place during my 4th grade. That was the first time we started using pens. From boring wooden pencils to pens of different colors, shapes and models, every kid was excited. Here started my new game. As per the rules of the game we should sprinkle ink on a small sheet of paper and then fold into eight. When we open it Lo! And behold the abstract sketch of what we were in our past life will be revealed. Only catch is the pattern can be deciphered by the one and the only – Yours truly the holy nautanki baba. All my classmates used to bring their piece of paper to me, I just connect those sprinkled ink dots to make a figure and conclude that the person was something. Since I was good in psychology I dealt it efficiently. All my girl followers were rabbits, peacocks, birds and other sweet n cute things,., and the boys used to be lions, tigers and dragons. Of course the class bullies were made pigs and dogs.

This game went on for almost a month. Until one fine day when the class teacher got hold of me. The rest as they say was history. I was made to stand on a bench and my teacher gave a lecture on superstitions. I tried to argue with her and even offered her my new ink pen and a piece of paper to prove I am right. She was a hard customer I say.

I better save my other exploits for more posts..probably can have sequels.. As a saying goes “He who cannot lie does not know what truth is”. In fact all my lies were a journey to find the truth. Do you believe me?