When he first joined in our class, we were pretty amused to hear about his remote controlled water-filter. Everybody guessed it right, and yes this guy was big liar. It were just these petty lies about his fantastic life that people heard from him till a time came when this consummate

possession became a deadly routine. Thirteen years from the first thing he lied, there have been hundreds of such instances where this one of my friends proved to be the most unpopular boy in the school. Tales of his triumphant fictitious siblings flew around the school. There was this incredible sister of his who was a model in Milan. He had a clutch of European magazines to bear his sister’s existence. I particularly remember a Giordano commercial where he introduced to us an eccentric Caucasian — his sister. Then a time came when he could stretch the story no more. He was running out of fiction, and burst into tears one afternoon to inform us about her decease in a St. Petersburg train pile-up which never happened.

Then there was this Aeroflot pilot half-brother of his, and his UN assistant to the vice-chairman uncle, a cousin who was assisting Steven Speilberg in Hollywood, etc. Finally, on completing school, he suddenly found news reporting for unknown European TV channels as his ultimate job. He would go down the Freak Street covering information with a borrowed camera, interview people and talk to the news studio via a wireless. He made fake trips to golf courses, carried expired credit cards which he would drop open in public or carry a SIM-less mobile phone to make fake conversations in the micro-bus. Once I asked him why he did what he was doing to which he replied “it makes me feel good.’ There was a kind of a thrill he would experience while making up a story. I could see the joy in his eyes when someone believed in his story. He leads a double-life where in actual one he is a responsible son. He even lied at times when it was so unimportant. He was not deprived in any ways but remained

unsatisfied. Truth to him was always unreachable; so he invented his own way to keep going. He wanted more in life. He is a common man in the street who makes up stories to ensure those around hear him.