Hypocrisy (un)veiled!! ~ From a Nomad's diary

X (to media): “The leader that he claims to be, has a wife too. A fact that he kept hidden all this while. And then, he wants to lead this country!! How can he keep such things personal, away from people's eyes? Truth always comes out.”

X (in reality):  “So what, if I am marrying a woman half my age, with whom I have had an affair for long? It is my personal life!! People need to mind their own business!”

A recent political scenario just exemplified the above example of blatant hypocrisy. Who said it, and who over reacted, is something most people know. Hypocrisy when steps out of a closet, stretches to unbelievable limits. And coming to think of it, hypocrisy is a second nature to every politician. But then, I wondered, are we all quite that sincere that we brand politicians, bureaucrats and celebrities as anything but honest? I guess, they are just upfront about their hypocrisy. The moment, power ascends to the head, hypocrisy tags along as one inane quality for every politician. However, if one looks around, there is enough around us too. We just either fail to take notice, or choose not to.

For instance, we all talk about big values, social development and a lot more about being civilized. How many of us truly act on what we talk? Do we take it in the same stride when our own kids and our maid’s kids go to the same school? How do we react when our children after watching us holler and  gyrate in parties, try to ape some of our own actions? How comfortable are we with the fact, that no matter how much we believe in being honest, we always put on a facade to not let the people around know what we really feel? How open are we to the idea of accepting people of the same gender in love, if they happen to be our friends and relatives, despite our advocacy for ban of Article 377 of Indian Penal Code? How many times have we lied to appease a person’s falsified ego, just because we thought, the situation demanded? How surprised we seem when children/teenagers back answer parents and teachers, when we ourselves have had our own hormonal surges, when we were their age? How far does our pretense go, when we understand the cascading effects of human behavior on success?

There are too many questions. And there are only arguments, no answers. The fact remains, that hypocrisy is there, all the time in each one of us. Only that, we become the hippopotamus from the stories of Tinkle Digest, who makes fun of every creature in the jungle, not knowing how he looks himself. It is just that, each one of us is a hypocrite. Only the degree varies.