Ow! Ow! Ow!

Sometimes I wonder how much pain would a woman go to to look beautiful. Cosmetic surgery is on an all time high. Women want that perfect nose, butt, breasts whatever. Sometimes I'm amazed at the number of women who agree to go under the knife to adhere to someone's idea of beauty. Being from India I know how important it is for some people to look fair and hence the huge market for fairness creams and the beautician will always ask if you want to bleach your face. It irritates me to no end. Indian women are beautiful in all shades of brown. There are  these impossible parameters of beauty that us mortal average women are subjected to and I think it's just not fair. We are individuals and we're all born with our own innate beauty and the people who love us can very easily see it.

I remember my father in law once told me a very interesting story. He had a colleague who was from the south of India. He went for an interview to London and the interviewer said to him," You are so dark, your nose is so big. Don't you think you are ugly?" Pat came the reply,"My mother doesn't think so!" That to me sums up in very few words exactly what beauty is all about. When you love someone they are beautiful. It doesn't really matter what your physical appearance is like, to the people who really care about you, you will always be beautiful.

All that said I went to the salon today to get my eyebrows done. Yes I give in to the idea that if my eyebrows look like perfect bows it's going to make me look pretty. Does it really? I don't know. I remember my eyebrows were just fine even when I didn't get them threaded. I sometimes curse the day I got them done for the first time. Now I pull my eyelid down and my forehead up as the cruel beautician plucks off each little hair and I constantly go,"Ow! Ow! Ow!"