Under the Veil

It's almost midnight now and I am sitting in front of my desktop tapping away at the keyboard.It's long since I've written. Tonight I again wish to write but I thought to myself, 'what should I write about?' And it stuck me - Under the veil. I began blogging since the year 2007. I've grown up as a person. I understand things in a better way and have developed a clearer way of thinking. And along with growing up came something else - secrets. When you were kids you had little secrets and they ranged from rampaging the favorite toy of your little siblings to the chocolate you sneaked out of the refrigerator. When we grow up the size and seriousness of the secrets grow as well. How much do we like to keep things under the veil! We want it safe while we present the pretty picture to the rest of the world. If it's not our secrets, it's our friends'. "Promise me you won't tell this to anyone," your friend demands and you  meekly nod your head to say yes. And you end up being the guardian of their as well as your own secrets.

I had this teacher during my last semester who helped us to groom our personalities. There is something she said that kind of instigated me. "No one should ever be able to know you completely," she said. And I was like,"What rubbish!" I still argue with myself on what she said. You shouldn't let others know everything about yourself. Really??? I mean what are friends for then. Friends do know you in an out. I watch a T.V series - Grey's Anatomy. Two of the leads in the show, Meredith Grey and Cristina Yang, are best friends
and call themselves each other's person. They know each other in and out. And I am an ardent viewer of the series and admirer of their friendship. Yet, here was my teacher telling me to never let anyone know everything about me. Somethings must stay - under the veil.

Whenever I try to get hold on to some news on the news channels, often I am witnessed to something like this - "Sansanikhez khabhar.... Parda faash...." ("Breaking News...Revealed"). Something gets revealed every now and then shooting up the TRPs. Corrupt politicians, sports persons, business men, Gurus, Leaders, Powerful men... everyone has things under the veil. And the veil is removed they are left ashamed of the things revealed. So, that's one type of things under the veil.

A year or two back, I was writing an article on the Veil of Muslim women - whether it's a sign of oppression. It was interesting to know that many women actually liked to wear a veil. They liked to symbolically signify
that they are different. But, of course when its forced upon, something that's so pristine does change into oppression. Christians during the Holy Communion keep the bread and wine at the altar under the veil signifying it's purity. Hindus use chunari to do the same thing, let it be the pooja's thaal (plate) or the veil (Chunari) used to put on Gods' image. Long story cut short - in all the religions veil is used to hide something pristine..cover something pure contrary to what we in our lives do.

What do we use the veil for? What do we hide? Those things that we wish never get out of the closet and stay buried in always and forever. 'No one should ever know everything about you.' I know what it means now. Keep under the veil the things that mystifies people around you so that when its revealed they will be yet again mesmerized by you. The rest of things that we commonly hide and try to put under the veil are better to be known to the people who matter lest things may end up bitterly. So what do you want to put under the veil?