The Mirror Revelation

-This story revolves around the central theme of how our extended ego shapes our modern identity constructs.

Maya woke up to the sound of her mobile alarm. She also heard a faint hum of the morning azaan from a distant mosque. She switched off the alarm and dragged the notification bar. It was another flood of notifications, Instagram likes, Whatsapp messages, Netflix videos to be watched. She sighed and also felt a gush of excitement as social media had become an integral part of her life. But at times her obsession for social media goes uncontrollable.

Taking the towel from the balcony she stepped into the bathroom for a quick shower. She applied toothpaste on her brush and glanced at the sink mirror. The Maya staring back at her from the mirror is not the same. She tried wipe the mirror clean using the towel and sleeves of her tshirt. Her reflection on the mirror is still not the same. It looks too tired and exhausted- the eyes look too dull for a seventeen year old. The smile lacks the joyful innocence of teenage years. The perfect selfies and curated status posts are just pieces of a costume. The skin brightening filters and hideous camera tricks easily hide skin blemishes and extra fat. She wears this costume every day.

From the kitchen came her mother’s voice, warm but insistent. “Maya, don’t spend too much time in the bathroom. On my way to office I will drop you at your school today.”

Maya nodded silently. She loved her family, but sometimes the weight of expectations felt suffocating. “I’m coming,” she called back.

At school, the pressure was relentless. Friends talked about new smartphones, weekend trips, and the latest trends on social media. The invisible scoreboard of followers and likes ruled conversations. Maya tried to keep up. Yet, every day the gap seemed to widen between her real self and her online persona.

At school, the pressure goes relentless with friends talking about new phones, weekend trips and latest hashtags on social media. The invisible yet most pursued scoreboard of likes and followers govern the dynamics of friendship. She has also been into the bandwagon. But today she started feeling a bit different. She felt the widening gap between to be and pretending to be.

During the recess period Maya glanced at her reflection in the glass window of the school canteen. The girl staring back looked distant, almost unfamiliar. Was she just the sum of her looks, ambitions, grades, her possessions, her online persona? Or was there someone beneath all that—someone real?

She walked home through the crowded streets of North Kolkata. She noticed the familiar sights — the old book stalls. Street vendors were selling puchkas. A group of kids was playing on the sidewalk. Yet, something felt off. It was as if the city was alive with whispers about forgotten names and lost selves.

That evening, Maya climbed to the rooftop, her favorite quiet spot. The sun dipped behind the Howrah Bridge, painting the sky crimson. The city buzzed below — autos honking, neighbors chatting, kids playing cricket in the narrow lanes.

She closed her eyes and asked the question she had been avoiding: “Kaun hoon main? Who am I, really?”

In the stillness, a vision took shape in her mind. She saw a strange city filled with forgotten names. In this city, possessions and status floated like ghosts. People wandered, lost in the maze of their own extended egos.

Maya didn’t understand then what that vision meant. Deep inside, she felt a stirring. It was the beginning of a journey to find herself beyond the mirror’s cracked reflection.

_____ END_____

Also Read: The Market of Masks

Note: This story is the first of 10 story sequence revolving around the bipolar nature of our ego.

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Central Theme: The Bipolarity of our Ego and Its Oscillation Across Embodiment and Extension

This story sequence posits that the human ego is not a singular structure but a bipolar dynamic force oscillating between embodied self-awareness and extended identity projections. Drawing upon philosophy, religion, quantum physics, cognitive science, and critical theory, this foundation explores how diverse traditions and thinkers have conceptualized this egoic duality, and how this oscillation affects perception, identity, and the human condition in a late-capitalist world.

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