Strange mirrors

Philosophers have found out that we are mirrors to each other. And each one of us has a strong desire as how we should be reflected in other mirrors; we get hurt when we find that those reflections are not as per our desires.

Traditional mirrors are manufactured by coating any metal like silver or aluminium at the back of a glass plate. I don’t have to elaborate the common use of a mirror; mirror is something that shows which you can’t see otherwise. While I was desperately trying to reduce my weight, I weighed all options. All roads led to the mantra “eat right and burn more calories”. I was looking for simpler options. One crazy idea I stumbled upon was to have dinner in front of a full size mirror, after taking my clothes off ! Since I didn’t have a full size mirror at home, I dropped that plan – having dinner in that fashion in any restaurant having large mirrors is not an option anyways!!

There are mirrors out there that may give you a false, fictitious image.

“You are bluffing. Just get out of this place”, Usha aunty shouted at that lady who came to predict their future. We kids used to visit Keshu uncle and Usha aunty’s house quite often. Keshu uncle was a distant relative of my father and was holding a high position in a public sector company. That “fortune teller” lady came to their house that day when we were also around. She didn’t have any props like cards, caged parrot, to much of our disappointment. She didn’t want to even see your palm to tell your future. She just asked aunty to look at her face as if it were a mirror and asked aunty as what reflections she found. “Nothing” was the reply from aunty, as she never believed these fraudsters. “Nothing means bad days are ahead for you, you may incur a huge expenditure due to some heavy damage” - that “frameless” mirror announced slightly tilting to we, kids.  Keshu uncle quietly watched the entire episode; he might have been used to these kinds of expenditure in his company. That’s when aunty drove her off without getting cheated by that lady.

Aunty never had any bad days in the future.  But she took the cue from those words, which mirrored within her. Though she knew what that lady told her was pure fiction, probably she would have suddenly remembered reading this – “Fiction reveals truth that reality obscures”! Then onwards she prevented us from playing in their living room which housed furniture with expensive imported upholstery! Actually it was not so-good days for us, more restrictions!

You know what happens if you are in between two parallel mirrors. You might not have experienced it though. I had. I was once in between my shining boss and his boss, who was equally shining, in my performance review discussion. Continuous, indefinite number of reflections covering 360 degrees !

When I am home alone, I can be a bit casual, unkempt and untidy. Choice is mine, as I can opt not to look into the mirror then! But it’s natural that I do all the necessary grooming when I step out, as I do not have any control on those “moving” mirrors. There were days when I used to put in considerable amount of effort in combing my hair to keep it in a neat way. Even now I continue that practice using my fingers to keep those remaining few nicely.  I am extremely happy that I am the biggest beneficiary of losing my hair as I don’t have to put any effort to keep them straight (And my hair dresser who keeps many mirrors to show things better reflected from me, is the only other beneficiary by making the same amount of money with much less effort) – I do not want to diminish my happiness even by a bit, because of somebody pointing out my shabby outlook, if at all !

We need to put considerable effort to present ourselves better, probably spending a little more time. It is a habit that can be cultivated, just like presenting shoddily becomes a habit with minimal effort. 

“Mirror is my best friend, when I cry it never laughs” – Charlie Chaplin. He meant traditional mirror with a smooth and straight surface. But when we go out, we would see different types of mirrors. Besides plain, there could be ones with curved surfaces – either convex or conclave, depending on which side they are stretched that day! Back side coating of them can be much darker and thicker than you think. They may be much closer than you wish, though they appear to be far. So your images you see in them could be distorted, exaggerated or even threatening.  You need to view those images with a large pinch of salt.