Lying

Ashwin Goyal

Dec 7, 2023

He’s said it now. He never meant to, really. It just slipped out. Now, it's out there, and there's no way to reel it back in.

This lie, his lie, wasn’t born out of malice. It was a knee-jerk reaction, a panicked attempt to shield himself from judgment and disappointment.

Sitting alone with the truth, he’s burdened with guilt, but he’s sure there‘s no turning back now.

So, he tells another lie, and then another, and then another. He keeps going, piling one on top of another, forever trapped in the story he’s created.

Becoming visible

Mild-mannered and ambitious, he was surprised when his boss said, "You're doing great, but you need to work on your visibility.” Eager to improve, he began making small changes, speaking up in every meeting and arriving early at the office. Unimpressed, his boss reiterated, "You need

Being honorable

He was molded by his mother's teachings to be an upstanding, honorable man. “Be the change,” she would whisper, her eyes holding a thousand untold stories of suffering. Then, the honorable man met his wife’s father, who, adhering to tradition, offered a dowry far beyond his middling