'God has given you one face;
and you make yourself another' - Shakespeare

I am not sure it is because of my artistic inclination or otherwise, human faces interest me a lot. I like faces; watching them and the way the faces change with emotions. Normally, film actors and actresses are expected to have mobile face as they have to express their emotions in an effective manner. There are wooden faced actors and actresses anyway.

I find one thing very strange. Most of the faces, someway or other have flaws. Geometrically, if we divide the face exactly into two halves, the two will not be identical. Even then, certain faces are quite pleasant, charming and appealing. Please note that I am not using the term 'beautiful'. A really beautiful face is rarity. However, there are beautiful faces of women and handsome faces of men and cute faces of kids that make the beholder to give a second look. Face is a strange but integral part of human personality. It could be a mask for some and a mirror for many. Many times faces are deceptive, so we cannot judge a person just by the 'face value'. It is said that face is so expressive that many of the thoughts and feeling going in the mind could be studies almost precisely. That is why we have proverbs like ' face is the index of mind'. Any intense emotion is invariably read on the face of the person- happiness, sorrow, indifference, disgust, anger etc. If someone loses his credibility, it is normally referred to as he had 'lost his face'.

There are faces, which are peculiar. Faces, which hardly let off any emotion, faces, which attract any person easily, faces, which make a person detest instantly; there are varieties of it. Many times I wonder how the creator has so much of imagination to make this many faces.

As I mentioned in the beginning faces mean a lot to me; intrigue me. I look at every face for something special. I always find something special in every face as the character of a person though I could hardly explain or put it in words. Because of this I hardly forget faces, which impressed me with their specialties. I still remember a friend's face, who studied with me in the school.

But, my memory is not very helpful. Even recently, I identified my classmate who used to sit in my bench in Pre University Class decades ago, but he could not recall me. I recognized a woman who was my sister's friend but she could hardly recall my sister or me.

It is true that faces changes with age. Age grossly draws lines, sags the flesh and transforms it to a totally different one; at times you see only the vague shadow of the beautiful face once. Nevertheless, even the wrinkles of age too add exotic charm to some faces like Mother Teresa's. The other day while waiting at the Mumbai Airport I saw my classmate in B.Tech. but unfortunately he looked through me blankly. Nevertheless, I did not want to trouble him so that he has to squeeze his memory.

It is always better to forget things in life. In fact, the present day fast life teaches only that. So remembrance is a pain. Even if I could forget my own face, I think it should not be considered a curse, but a favor.