The Zero Sum

(Original draft of October, 2010)


There was once a man; ah well, he thought he was. A man. 

As he grew, smaller, his cowardice blossomed. And in no time he was a young man ready to make a life under a thoroughly branched, shadowy and strong trunked mohagany of spinelessness.

We all know cowardice in a man is what shamelessness is in a woman. 

So that was like what it exactly was: Changing costume after costume, putting on layers of make-up, to hide beneath one form or the other. 

Every night he donned a new attire, a new avatar: One that could earn him the most applause for that night. One that could steal the show for that night.

Every night he played a different man.

And his life, thus became the sum of the shows he put up, night after night.

Till he remembered only the applause.

And forgot who he was.

What is worse than being a man who can not belong to any one? 

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.
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Being a man who can not belong to his own self!