India, Dec. 16 -- Ever since social media sneaked into our lives, we have made it a shelf to display our lives' wares. We paint our digital walls with milestones, memories, smiles, and sorrows. It's a vibrant collage of life's varied hues, yet what we post is often a curated version of reality. The smiles are brighter, the love is deeper, the vacations are grander, and the heartbreaks are more dramatic. But behind this veneer of filtered perfection, the raw and unfiltered truth often lurks quietly, hidden from the world's gaze.

For a month, I posted pictures from my holiday-pristine landscapes, cheerful meals, and stylish getups-giving the impression that I was the happiest and luckiest person on earth. From the outside, it looked like l...