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Wednesday, July 27, 2011

What is beauty to you?


Few days ago, A strange incident took place. It might not look strange to you. But I had issues dealing with it. 

I was standing with an aunt in the neighbourhood garden, among lush greens, and vast varieties of tress and plants. Lot of insects, and little creatures were seen from time to time. A not-so-attractive lizard appeared, and aunt immediately shouted,"this is an ugly lizard, it must be venomous". I did not react. But the incident kept striking me again and again. It has reasons.

Number one reason being, she connected ugliness with venom? Lets be clear here, not every creature is pretty and good-looking. Does that mean, that they are poisonous, or harmful. There are many good-looking creatures, who are of no worth to the society. I don't understand. Does our brains accept only white beautiful people? Did that aunt expect lizard to be snazzy and glamorous? Lizard is ugly, therefore it contains venom. Weird? And what about us, human beings, who are not pretty? Are we venomous too? 

Think about it. 

World preaches beauty. Television displays all the pretty white faces with the accurate shapes and sizes. The world is not so perfect that is shown on our television sets, only if we understand this. We have imperfections. And we should be proud of it. Where will the fun factor be, and self improvement part be, if we all were born perfect. Why aren't imperfect faces ever applauded? 

Blackness has always been associated with evil, venom, and everyone wants the fair skinned companion. Isn't that strange? Yes, it is. Can't people with black skin be good companions? All of us have been created by god. We have distinguished features. Different color, different sizes? What is the problem then? Don't we have the right to be treated equally? Why is black considered to be evil? And why are ugly people considered to be savages? Each of the creature- human being or an animal, has the right to live,till his death sets him apart. Who are these pretty people, who can deny them a worthy life? 

Beauty is transient. It will go away, with time. Then? Are we living in a world, where only pretty faces are capable of making good friends? 
Do you all need pretty- faced people to get clicked with, to call them "friends", and to display it on face book and other social networking sites?  I've heard from somewhere that in colleges, they prefer to give away admissions to the beautiful people without looking into their calibres, who are least deserving? Ugly faces are not taken by good families for marriage prospects? Are those families really "good families" who mercilessly rejects the not-so-good looking faces to enter in their bloodlines, however ugly their boy might be. Does these kind of faces not make good couples? I can put down so many more examples here, where beautiful people can go on, and not-so-beautiful can't.

P.S.- I understand, aunt talked about lizard being ugly and venomous. But the concepts of beauty are deeply rooted in the our society that discriminates everyone on something or the other. They don't even spare lizards. How does it matter to her? 

My message to the people who were ever demeaned because of their beauty (esp for girls) :
Don't ever think you are not beautiful. You are. However, dishevelled state you are in. You always look beautiful.
You are capable of achieving everything in the world, that you dream for yourself.
Never let anyone put you down. Build your self confidence brick by brick each day. 
And never forget, Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder. 

And dear beauty appreciators, if you are so keen to applaud physical beauty, and your eyes cant stand imperfections, look around and praise the beauty of nature. The purest form of beauty. There's is nothing so perfect and beautiful like nature. 

3 comments:

Blasphemous Aesthete said...

True, it is true that color isn't the right way to benchmark any beauty. And nature is beautiful indeed.

But to say that lizard is ugly hence poisonous would only do her wrong if she spoke such things in front of an animal lover, or specially lizard lover. They are in plenty.

Cheers,
Blasphemous Aesthete

Gaurav Dhamija said...

Only a beautiful heart can churn up thoughts like these. A very nice post.

Jack said...

Ritika,

It is something like we eat what appeals to our eyes even if it is harmful to our system but shun eating what does not appeal even if it builds up our immune strength. So we need to remember that it is not just physical appearance but inner qualities which also need to be taken into account. Do ask that aunt if she would call a majestic and beautiful cobra with fully spread hood to be non - venomous.

Take care