I closed my eyes, blinded by the sharp shooting pain in my forehead. I wanted to forget everything that had been happening to me in the past thirty-five years of my life! And yet, my entire life appeared in front of me, in slow motion. It all started in such a small scale. The first lie that I ever said was to my mother, telling her that I'd finished my homework, even though I actually had not even started it. I was 7 and she had completely believed it. The guilt had eaten me up and finally I had rushed in to her arms that night and sobbed, "I I'm sorry, Mama. I lied to you. I haven't finished my home work." I can never forget the look in her eyes! Disappointment and pride combined together disappointed that I lied and proud that I had confessed. I'd promised myself that I would never lie again. Little did I realize that once deceit caught hold of you, it didn't release its tentacles so easily! As I started growing up, I started lying more frequently. A little white lie here, a completely blown up lie there or sometimes a lie just to get away with it! I mean, here I would be lying through my teeth and some person would be eating it up as if it was life's biggest truth. It was exhilarating to get away with lying and having your own way. The guilt that came with lies just kept diminishing with every lie. The first time, it was huge; but pretty soon it was hardly visible. I remember a time in college when I'd spread a vicious rumor about a classmate of mine. The poor girl was teased so much that she quit our college and moved to some other location. I did feel guilty about it, but pretty soon I convinced myself that she was a coward for quitting and deserved more of such treatments. The thing about lies is that it never stops. If you start lying and get away with it, pretty soon you'll be lying for no apparent reason. That's what happened to me too. There were so many times when I asked myself, "Why did I do it? Why did I lie? What did I gain by it?" Almost all such times, my answer would be, "I gained nothing, but I had fun!" The answer would shock me momentarily, but pretty soon I'd be planning about my next lie. Life has a strange way of not stopping and moving at a steady pace. I finished college, and pretty soon was looking for jobs. During this period, I got some more opportunities to lie in my resume. By this time, my sense of guilt had completely been destroyed. I was the queen of my castle of lies and as a result, promotion was not such a big deal. And, if you combined looks with brains, it made a deadly combination! To be continued dont miss the second part :)