I have a Question regarding Honesty

I was recently listening to “Aashish” by Bipul Chhetri when these lines caught my attention:

“जगतलाई उज्यालो पार्ने तिम्रो हसाई

हृदयमा छापिने साँचो तिम्रो हेराई”

These lines, as they intended, made me stop and think about the innocence of a child and the honest way they look at you.

Children are the most honest beings out there, don’t you think?

If they like you, they make it so obvious. They straight up tell you if they don’t.

They tell you if something doesn’t look good and they tell you as a matter of fact, what they think about something.

Of course, there’s that naughtiness in them, but children are born honest. We all are.

So where is all the honesty lost when we grow up?

We try to be honest, I’ll give it that, but we lose our honesty somewhere, don’t we? I can see three reasons for this being so:

1.      We’re trying not to hurt the other’s person’s feelings

2.      We are trying to get something out of the situation

3.      We pretend

They say: a lie told for someone’s sake of happiness is not a lie at all. Maybe it is so, maybe it is not. There are so many instances where we cannot be 100% honest, even with ourselves. Agreed? But I have a question regarding honesty. And here is my question regarding honesty: Is honesty an illusion? Is our honesty somehow moulded by society whilst we grow up into what seems to be the appropriate version by it? What do you think?

It reminds me of something I heard in class: “People like honest people but they do not like honesty”. So, what would you like to hear? Be honest.