DO NOT LIE; IT’S
EVIL – read the hoarding, bold and bright. She stood there looking at those
words and wondered. All the instances when she had lied splashed and continued
to remind her of the series of evil that she was faced with. She stood there
for long staring at those words, though she wasn’t particularly seeing them. She
was seeing through her life of miseries, sufferings and loss. None of the happy
moments made their way. The priest noticed her among other people, who read
through the words on long white walls as if they had come to a museum and
walked off, laughing, confident that they had never said a lie and evil was
only for others.
He approached
her and said, ‘… there’s more to it. Evil is caused by the devil and the devil
never dies. Satan and God are 2 faces of the same coin, so are true-lies.’
‘Is it not true
that you preach about God, not talk of Satan?’
He smiled and
looked into her eyes trying to read her fast moving eyeballs. They had endless
questions, desperately looking for answers. He looked away and apologized for
intruding her privacy and excused himself. She saw him approach other people
who were in pain, wanting to be healed. They wanted answers, just like her, but
the priest had nothing more to give her, unlike for others. She left from where
she stood for the last few hours and waited in the long queue that had quickly
formed. There was a mother of sick child, a widow who’d lost her husband in an
accident, a father whose son was sacrificed for the nation, a young lad who
feared to fail in the exam. She had none of their worries, but had questions. She
waited anxiously for her turn as she heard the priest advice each one of them
and cajole them. ‘God will help you. Good will prevail’ almost same words repetitively,
yet each one waited to be told, personally by the priest. It was as if God
himself spoke to them on his behalf.
When her turn
came, the priest asked her to stand by and went on attending to the queued
ones. It was until the noon when no more people were let in and gates were
closed. She stood there by his side and he looked at her.
‘I saw you
standing by the wall all by yourself as you asked questions and looked through
deep inside for your answers. But when I tried to speak to you, you got
distracted and left mid-way through before following the crowd. You see the
doctor when you cannot heal yourself. Go back to yourself and continue to look
through. You don’t need my advice…’
She smiled and
nodded. ‘I still wanted to hear from you. I have lied many times, even when
there was no need. What harm a white lie would do to anyone, I thought. Sometimes
I didn’t even lie; I just held back the truth. Is it not all the same? I have
walked a long way on this path and when I look back, it’s all lie that I never
intended. Will I be able to get back on the path of honesty? Even if I do, what
will happen to the past?’
‘Nothing
happens to the past. It’s all already happened. I leave you with yourself. Excuse
me’ and he again walked off.
She looked up at
the big, bold words on the hoarding and made a promise. She took the coin out
and flipped it and slid it in her purse and walked out.
‘It’s going to
be this side of the coin, from now on’, she heard her say.
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