"The Mirror never lies"
"Of course it doesn't. A mirror never lies. It shows who we are" he said, trying to keep abreast with his ageing companion.
"No, ya don't understand. 'Tis a bad mirror. What you mean is in a physical sense. I mean it in a whole sense" the old man said, trying hard to dissuade him.
"You worry too much, old fellow. I didn't come half the way across the world to Mexico just to be daunted by folklore" he replied, laughing.
"The mirror is bad omen. People lose their minds over it. They never recover from it and slowly fade into oblivion"
"I like doing things that normal people can't do. That's what adventure is all about, old man," he replied. "Now how far away is this place?"
"We're still in the main city. It's out there in the desert, inside a cave. No one knows where it came from. It is still an hour's drive away," the old man replied, letting go of his rhetoric as he realized it wouldn't make any difference to the young traveler.
"Tell me about yourself young man. There's still time to kill and better spend it in knowing each other than silence. After all, I can then tell the local media about the latest victim of The Mirror, spiced with exaggerations", the old man grinned.
The young traveler scowled.
"Maybe you should have a look at the Mirror!" he replied.
"I'm prudent enough to know who I am and who I am not" the old man replied, suddenly becoming serious.
"But if you do know who you are, in this case being evil, you shouldn't be surprised by what the mirror has to show you, right?" the young traveler asked.
"It is said that the mirror shows you who you are. Men always underestimate who they are. They don't think objectively. They know their deeds, but they do not know the consequences of those deeds. Because men do not have to suffer for their deeds, not immediately at least. Man always thinks too much of himself. The Mirror makes you realize who you really are, and most men aren't able to handle that" the old man explained.
"You mean there isn't any man who hasn't came out sane? There isn't any good person in this world?" asked the traveler.
"There might be. After the Mirror became famous, there are many people like you; some to introspect, some to prove the Mirror to be a hoax. Very few come out sane, but they don't speak much. Since they come out sane, they must be the good ones. But the mirror corrupts them too. Pride attracts men, like honey attracts the flies. So it's a two sided sword. Only one thing is certain. Doom." the old man said.
The young traveler didn't speak any further. He looked out the window, at the never ending desert pondering the outcome of this journey. The old man's words had got to him. The odds were against him. But he remembered his objective. The truth. His whole life had been a conquest of the truth. The more he had dug in to the truth, the more he got confused. There had to be an objective truth and maybe this is where he will find it.
Whether it be the truth about him or the truth about the Universe, he wanted it. He didn't mind losing his mind, losing his life for it. They say that every one gets a glimpse of the Truth when they died;the moment before dying. But it is too late by then and regret fills their mind as the last known feeling before they are free.
"Having second thoughts young man? We're getting close. Say the word and we'll turn around" the old man said.
"No. We go on. How long have you been doing this?" asked the young traveler, keen to change the topic.
"Since the Mirror came to be discovered. About two years ago. A wanderer came about it when he was looking for shelter in a cave. He became insane as usual but somehow made way into town. He kept shouting about the Mirror and people kept ignoring him. I was intrigued by what he said and took him along to locate it. He was delirious. Kept blabbering about his sins, about how he was the devil. How he had done so much wrong. How he didn't deserve to live. I was prudent enough not to look in the mirror myself. Though I was smart enough to make it into a trade" the old man grinned.
"Curse you, old man!"
"We're almost there. See that small hill over there? There's a cave on the west side of the hill. I'll leave you by the roadside and wait for you. If you come that is" said the old man.
The young traveler nodded in agreement.
The car stopped a few feet away from the hill.
"Good luck boy" said the old man.
The young traveler acknowledged it and got out of the car. Without looking back he started walking around the perimeter of the hill towards the west trying to locate an opening that would be the cave. It was very quiet with only the wind to break the silence. A thousand thoughts wandered through the young man's mind. Doubts, fears and random memories of his loved ones. As he turned a sharp corner, he spotted a small opening, wide enough only to permit one person at a time; one slim person that too.
Sloths aren't allowed? One of the deadly sins I guess!
The opening was high enough to pass comfortably without bending one's head. It seemed all black and he could spot no light source inside. He walked inside with trepidation, one small step at a time. It was very dark and he could hardly see. He switched on his torch light but the cave was deeper than the light could pierce. He walked on for about a hundred feet before he found the tunnel like structure open up into a big hall. A speckled light reflected towards his left.
The Mirror!
This is it, he thought.
He walked towards the Mirror and moved around to face it.
The glare of his torchlight was too much and he couldn't see anything. He pointed it towards the ceiling and a dim light filled the small hall.
That is me. Me in my hiking shorts and shoes and a torchlight on my head.
The next image was of him as a baby. Him and his sister. Him hitting his sister. Him apologizing to her. Him hugging her. Him going to school.
It was his whole life in a fast forward motion. Every notable event, good or bad, the images of those whizzed through the mirror. But it was the feeling of those events from the opposite person's point of view was what he felt.
It was him hitting his sister, but it was the slap himself that he felt. It was him apologizing to his sister that he saw but it was not guilt that he felt at saying sorry but the heart warming feeling of forgiving someone that he felt. A flurry of emotions and feelings filled his body. The cold shoulder that he gave someone came back to hit him. The hurt at being made fun of by him came back at him. The feeling of being envied, the feeling of an apology not being accepted, the relief of the stomach when food entered the body after starving for days, the notion of being grateful all of them came rushing to him, concentrated in form and concentrated in the short time span that it came to. The Mirror was objective, and it showed every thing in one's life, every thing one has ever made the other person feel. The more a person did good, the more he felt good and it wasn't his feeling that counted, it was the other person's feeling that he felt. When he gave a young child a vada pav, it was the immense feeling of gratitude that the child experienced, that he experienced. When he did bad to someone, it wasn't what he felt, but the immense hurt the other person felt that he experienced.
It is said that no one survive the Mirror because no one is equipped to ponder and comprehend over the deeds we've performed over our life in such a long time. It is said that the Mirror was just a concentrated form of Karma.
Karma hits a person slowly and yet it hurts so much. The Mirror is deadly in that sense...
P.S : Too much of intense stuff. Will try and write light hearted stuff further :P
"Of course it doesn't. A mirror never lies. It shows who we are" he said, trying to keep abreast with his ageing companion.
"No, ya don't understand. 'Tis a bad mirror. What you mean is in a physical sense. I mean it in a whole sense" the old man said, trying hard to dissuade him.
"You worry too much, old fellow. I didn't come half the way across the world to Mexico just to be daunted by folklore" he replied, laughing.
"The mirror is bad omen. People lose their minds over it. They never recover from it and slowly fade into oblivion"
"I like doing things that normal people can't do. That's what adventure is all about, old man," he replied. "Now how far away is this place?"
"We're still in the main city. It's out there in the desert, inside a cave. No one knows where it came from. It is still an hour's drive away," the old man replied, letting go of his rhetoric as he realized it wouldn't make any difference to the young traveler.
"Tell me about yourself young man. There's still time to kill and better spend it in knowing each other than silence. After all, I can then tell the local media about the latest victim of The Mirror, spiced with exaggerations", the old man grinned.
The young traveler scowled.
"Maybe you should have a look at the Mirror!" he replied.
"I'm prudent enough to know who I am and who I am not" the old man replied, suddenly becoming serious.
"But if you do know who you are, in this case being evil, you shouldn't be surprised by what the mirror has to show you, right?" the young traveler asked.
"It is said that the mirror shows you who you are. Men always underestimate who they are. They don't think objectively. They know their deeds, but they do not know the consequences of those deeds. Because men do not have to suffer for their deeds, not immediately at least. Man always thinks too much of himself. The Mirror makes you realize who you really are, and most men aren't able to handle that" the old man explained.
"You mean there isn't any man who hasn't came out sane? There isn't any good person in this world?" asked the traveler.
"There might be. After the Mirror became famous, there are many people like you; some to introspect, some to prove the Mirror to be a hoax. Very few come out sane, but they don't speak much. Since they come out sane, they must be the good ones. But the mirror corrupts them too. Pride attracts men, like honey attracts the flies. So it's a two sided sword. Only one thing is certain. Doom." the old man said.
The young traveler didn't speak any further. He looked out the window, at the never ending desert pondering the outcome of this journey. The old man's words had got to him. The odds were against him. But he remembered his objective. The truth. His whole life had been a conquest of the truth. The more he had dug in to the truth, the more he got confused. There had to be an objective truth and maybe this is where he will find it.
Whether it be the truth about him or the truth about the Universe, he wanted it. He didn't mind losing his mind, losing his life for it. They say that every one gets a glimpse of the Truth when they died;the moment before dying. But it is too late by then and regret fills their mind as the last known feeling before they are free.
"Having second thoughts young man? We're getting close. Say the word and we'll turn around" the old man said.
"No. We go on. How long have you been doing this?" asked the young traveler, keen to change the topic.
"Since the Mirror came to be discovered. About two years ago. A wanderer came about it when he was looking for shelter in a cave. He became insane as usual but somehow made way into town. He kept shouting about the Mirror and people kept ignoring him. I was intrigued by what he said and took him along to locate it. He was delirious. Kept blabbering about his sins, about how he was the devil. How he had done so much wrong. How he didn't deserve to live. I was prudent enough not to look in the mirror myself. Though I was smart enough to make it into a trade" the old man grinned.
"Curse you, old man!"
"We're almost there. See that small hill over there? There's a cave on the west side of the hill. I'll leave you by the roadside and wait for you. If you come that is" said the old man.
The young traveler nodded in agreement.
The car stopped a few feet away from the hill.
"Good luck boy" said the old man.
The young traveler acknowledged it and got out of the car. Without looking back he started walking around the perimeter of the hill towards the west trying to locate an opening that would be the cave. It was very quiet with only the wind to break the silence. A thousand thoughts wandered through the young man's mind. Doubts, fears and random memories of his loved ones. As he turned a sharp corner, he spotted a small opening, wide enough only to permit one person at a time; one slim person that too.
Sloths aren't allowed? One of the deadly sins I guess!
The opening was high enough to pass comfortably without bending one's head. It seemed all black and he could spot no light source inside. He walked inside with trepidation, one small step at a time. It was very dark and he could hardly see. He switched on his torch light but the cave was deeper than the light could pierce. He walked on for about a hundred feet before he found the tunnel like structure open up into a big hall. A speckled light reflected towards his left.
The Mirror!
This is it, he thought.
He walked towards the Mirror and moved around to face it.
The glare of his torchlight was too much and he couldn't see anything. He pointed it towards the ceiling and a dim light filled the small hall.
That is me. Me in my hiking shorts and shoes and a torchlight on my head.
The next image was of him as a baby. Him and his sister. Him hitting his sister. Him apologizing to her. Him hugging her. Him going to school.
It was his whole life in a fast forward motion. Every notable event, good or bad, the images of those whizzed through the mirror. But it was the feeling of those events from the opposite person's point of view was what he felt.
It was him hitting his sister, but it was the slap himself that he felt. It was him apologizing to his sister that he saw but it was not guilt that he felt at saying sorry but the heart warming feeling of forgiving someone that he felt. A flurry of emotions and feelings filled his body. The cold shoulder that he gave someone came back to hit him. The hurt at being made fun of by him came back at him. The feeling of being envied, the feeling of an apology not being accepted, the relief of the stomach when food entered the body after starving for days, the notion of being grateful all of them came rushing to him, concentrated in form and concentrated in the short time span that it came to. The Mirror was objective, and it showed every thing in one's life, every thing one has ever made the other person feel. The more a person did good, the more he felt good and it wasn't his feeling that counted, it was the other person's feeling that he felt. When he gave a young child a vada pav, it was the immense feeling of gratitude that the child experienced, that he experienced. When he did bad to someone, it wasn't what he felt, but the immense hurt the other person felt that he experienced.
It is said that no one survive the Mirror because no one is equipped to ponder and comprehend over the deeds we've performed over our life in such a long time. It is said that the Mirror was just a concentrated form of Karma.
Karma hits a person slowly and yet it hurts so much. The Mirror is deadly in that sense...
P.S : Too much of intense stuff. Will try and write light hearted stuff further :P
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