Lies....................

Lie. What is a lie? According to the Standard Concise Oxford English Dictionary, a lie is " a deliberately made false statement." One doesn't truly get the feeling of being lied to through this formal definition. Lies are different. You need to be told one to know one and to understand how it feels when someone has lied to you.

Every sentence ever spoken by man on earth can be classified into two major categories - Truth and Lies. Truth, we do not have a problem with. Although it may not always be pleasant for the listener but after all, the truth is the truth and one has to accept it, sooner or later. Moving over to the second category, i.e., lies, these are what interest me. Small words which change the course of one's life. One thing needs to be made very clear to all, there are no 'white lies'. A lie is a lie and will always stay so. You may be pondering over why am i writing about, of all the things under the sun, lies.I'd like to make myself clear. All of you have lied atleast once in your lives and you know what a horrible feeling it is. Most of you have been lied to, this time the feeling is only worse. So, it is not about lies that i write, but about the feelings which accompany them. Bad feelings. Feelings of guilt, pain, hatred, shame and all other negative feelings combined into one. LIES.

Now stop here and think for a moment. Why do people lie? Because they want to hide the truth. But why do they want to hide the truth? Because it is dirty, ugly, ghastly and may cause a huge uproar in the person's life. But is it always so? No. Not always. Sometimes people hide the truth as they feel that it may hurt the listener. Don't they understand that when the listener finds out about the lie, he/she will be hurt even more.

When a person is asked why he/she has lied the most common answer received is that " I didn't wwant to, but circumstances forced me" No circumstances on earth force a person to lie. One needs to speak a thousand more in order to hide a lie and just like a goat stuck in a bog, tries to escape but is sucked deeper and deeper. Once a lie is told, there is no way out of the skirmish.

As preached by all our respected holy books, "Truth always prevails" or "Truth alone Triumphs" A liar may not feel so. He might feel lying is easier and guarantees success but he doesn't realise that nothing in life comes with a guarantee because life itself isnt guaranteed. A truthful person, who speaks the truth during crisis may have to suffer for a short period but once the hardship expires, he gains a life of love, compassion, enjoyment, happiness and security. I have only put forward my views. Its all upto you, to lie or not to.

All of us face crossroads in life where we are confused, what to say or do and whether to support the truth or the lies and in such situations, whatever the result be, one can never stop thinking later about what would have happened if he/she had taken another path. Whether lying would've been better. Whether truth would've brought success.It all hardly matters and is beautifully summed up by Robert Frost.

"I will be telling this with a sigh,Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference"

Kislay Kamlesh Choudhary
Class X
Don Bosco Siliguri.