EXERCISE 3

- NALINAKSHI KUMAR
(A23200)

RETELLING A FAIRY TALE

Sia wakes up, gets ready and goes into the dining hall for breakfast, her mother asks, “Today
is the day your results for school exams will be declared, isn’t it?” Sia nods her head, inside
nervously screaming in anticipation thinking to herself “How much will I score, will it make
my parents happy, what if I don’t score well, what if I disappoint my parents, what if my
friends score more than me, they will mock, me the teachers expect me to perform well what
if I disappoint them?” At such a young age the stress and burden she carries weighs even
more than the heavy bag, laden with books she carries to school and climbs the stairs every
day. Sia reaches her classroom in anxiety over the results when her topper friend remarks
“You do remember that we have paper showing
today don’t you?” Sia put on a smile and says that
she’s well aware of that and wishes her luck, when
on the inside she gets even more scared thinking
about “How is this girl so confident and happy about
the announcement of results and I on the other hand
am so nervous?”, little did she know that even the
other girl was pretending to be confident when on
the inside she was even more nervous because of the
pressure of being a “topper”, being a topper is no
easy task, getting good marks is a tough task in itself and upholding and maintaining that
reputation is the even more difficult part. The students all take seats and within a few minutes
the bell rings, the teacher enters, hearts beat faster. The teacher announces that the class
hasn’t performed well overall in comparison to their
previous batches, hears sink. When Sia looks at her
marks, she is surprised to see that she performed
relatively well than her peers and later finds out that
she actually scored the highest in class. She is joyous
but as soon as she realizes that not everyone else has
scored well, she decides to keep her happiness to
herself. A group of girls who scored less but acted like
they would have definitely performed better than her,
underestimating her, came up to her wearing their "first face" masks – putting on a show of
confidence and success. They complimented her but couldn't hide their envy. Deep down,
they were jealous and insecure about not meeting their own and their parents’ expectations.
As the day goes on, Sia finds herself wearing her "second face" when with her close friends.
She shares her joy and relief with them but remains humble, not wanting to make anyone feel
worse about their results. In the midst of their conversations, she discovers that her friends
are also struggling with the pressures of academics and are getting buried under the weight of

expectations. When she returns home, she finally lets her "third face" show itself. Alone in
her room, she reflects on the day's events. She realizes the immense pressure everyone in her
class, including her own self is under to perform, maintain appearances, and meet the
expectations of others. The Japanese belief about the three faces resonates deeply with her.

Success isn’t just what it looks like, it takes in a lot more than people know and a lot more
than we see, behind success they are immense obstacles. People only care about success in
the end- the destiny but nobody cares about the path, the obstacles- the journey. She decides
to be kind, compassionate with others as you may never know what a person is actually going
through, smiles are very deceiving.

The Japanese belief

There is a Japanese belief that every person has three faces each presented to a different
category of people. The first face is the one that you show to the world; this is probably the
fakest version of you- pretentious, diplomatic, happy, and perfect. The second face is the one
that you show to your family members and your close friends; this is semi real. The third face
is the one that you never show to anyone; the truest reflection of yours. The faces here are in
fact referring to personalities. The real reason why we have to wear these different masks is
that being completely honest and truthful may not always yield the best of outcomes for us in
this cruel, fake, and heartless world.

The Japanese proverb, of the 3 faces, proves that neither in today’s world nor earlier we could
openly show our true selves to everyone. We, humans, are constantly running this rat race to
come first, to win and excel, to become somebody everyone looks up to. But the real question
is will anyone ever look up to you if you open up about your deepest insecurities? Will, you
still get the fame and encouragement for being yourself truly? The world is filled with
advertisements, speeches, posters, and people constantly urging us all to be true selves but
sadly no one will accept the actual reality of the fact that no one is truly themselves because
being slightly fake and diplomatic gets you places. Sugarcoating things makes you come
across as an approachable amiable human being and the fact that being likable boosts your
self-confidence. The 3 faces cannot always be shown to the world, at least not all the 3 faces.