“Insaan naam mein mazhab dhoond leta hai” ~ Naseeruddin Shah from A Wednesday , which loosely translates to – People deduce one’s religion from a name. If you’re an Indian then add a face, the language(s) one talks, the way he/she talks it and how one pronounces Vaazhai-pazham (banana in tamizh), I could probably zero-in on the pin-code of the place you grew up with an accuracy of 50 km. Somewhat like this scene from Alaipayuthe . (For the hindi speaking audience- I suggest you browse through Saathiya, coz I couldn’t find that scene on YouTube.) Anyways kudos to Mani Rathnam for shooting that scene in a such a way that, no one thought it was stalking and thus no Open-letters were written. Well I have digressed enough for me to pull the emergency chain on my train of thought.
This post is just an attempt to address the question many asked – “Why this nameless- faceless online existence.?” (Oh k.! Not many, but a few).
It all began the summer three years back, when my then-future-Ex-girlfriend texted me saying- She had stumbled upon my twitter page. I didn’t have any specific reaction to that. In retrospect I think I should’ve had a knee-jerk reaction, made my profile protected and in few minutes should’ve probably deleted my account, because what followed was a string of text messages explaining why I shouldn’t have tweeted something and it was insensitive, un-thoughtful et cetera et cetera et cetera. This would eventually spiral out to she breaking up with me because of many reasons, one of which would happen to be- Me being a different person online and a different person in-person. May be I am. May be we all are. Isn’t that why the digital persona is there for.? To be what you want to be at that moment. A poet at 2 am, a food blogger at Saturday 7 pm, a travel blogger when on holiday, a film critic when a movie releases and a stand up comedian to make fun of all those guys you were playing before. A name/identity kinda constraints me from playing a limited number of characters. Being anon, you can have any number of opinions or no opinions. You can just be the pristine you or the pretentious you or whatever you wish to be that day. I can write a pompous and narcissistic post like this and shameless screenshot it and put it on insta stories for hits. It is liberating.!!
I’m not saying I don’t have an identity, I’m just saying I have many and I’m loyal to none.
Ps: I know I’ve just addressed the nameless part here. The faceless-ness part shall be addressed in the next post titled- “Why a four shouldn’t date an eight.!”
Dorky_Mc_Dark_Face 