Pretending to be someone

Life is monotonous and mundane; its more so when you go on living the same life for ever. You never exactly come to realise when the life has just slipped off your grip. Not that I have any objection to life sliping off your sleeves. I just am a bit curious to see life from different points of views. But, its always been extremely difficult for ordinary human beings like you and me, to live different lives in the same life time. I have observed in UK that they particularly get this habit of experiencing different lives, or rather life in different set-ups, quite early in their lives. For example most of my British friends would go on vacation at least twice a year. And during that period they will not take their cell-phones with them, nor would they check their emails. Well, let me highlight these two luxuries of today, namely cell-phones and Internet, which have almost made it impossible for us to leave our lives aside even for a split of a second.

Tracking on the same trends, unintentionally of course, I am currently experiencing a new life today. Sitting in a lonely shabby tea-corner in a corner of the Science College of Kolkata University, I am experiencing a strange new life. Before I meet the professor, I am no body here. I know no one and no one knows me. For them I am a decent looking stranger with a particularly familiar broad smile. And for me, they are all my alter-egos. I have been in Kolkata for last two days, in a guest-house where again no one knows me! I have also hidden my identity to some extent , except for the extent which is needed to get some basic things done. Its nice. And I have been traveling in local town bus. More exciting and thrilling. My cell phone, luckily has no roaming facility and luckily again, there are no Internet parlours near the guest-house.

Big cities like Kolkata, London and Bombay have a life of their own! They have a certain strange mass psychology where you soon find your own psyche and ego engulfed. All the people, all the egos, all of them seem to have some strong similarity, similarity that is unique to that particular city. Hence, I find it very exciting to travel alone in such a big city, trying to soak in a bit of its personality. Its a nice feeling, feeling of stopping what you are and getting submerged in a unique personality pool. Its enlightening to live a different life. Its breathtaking and magnificent, to pretend to be someone else, who you can never be in your real life. Well, yes, you may say its self-deception; you may also say its blank pretension; or running away from reality. Say what you may, this is the type of break I would really look forward to again and again in my life. The joy of a vicarious life in real-life is a joy of its own kind!