Beauty and The Beast

On By Sherna BhumgaraIn Human attributes; attitudes & behaviour, Music

Beauty and the Beast

Ageless Beauty

The Dark Beast
Cover of "The Devil Wears Prada [Blu-ray]...
Cover of The Devil Wears Prada [Blu-ray]

 

“Suddenly I See” – KT Tunstall (from the movie – “The Devil Wears Prada)

Her face is a map of the world
Is a map of the world
You can see she’s a beautiful girl
She’s a beautiful girl
And everything around her is a silver pool of light
The people who surround her feel the benefit of it
It makes you calm
She holds you captivated in her palm

Suddenly I see (Suddenly I see)
This is what I wanna be
Suddenly I see (Suddenly I see)
Why the hell it means so much to me

I feel like walking the world
Like walking the world
You can hear she’s a beautiful girl
She’s a beautiful girl
She fills up every corner like she’s born in black and white
Makes you feel warmer when you’re trying to remember
What you heard
She likes to leave you hanging on her word

Suddenly I see (Suddenly I see)
This is what I wanna be
Suddenly I see (Suddenly I see)
Why the hell it means so much to me

And she’s taller than most
And she’s looking at me
I can see her eyes looking from a page in a magazine
Oh she makes me feel like I could be a tower
A big strong tower
She got the power to be
The power to give
The power to see

Suddenly I see (Suddenly I see)
This is what I wanna be
Suddenly I see (Suddenly I see)
Why the hell it means so much to me

Whoever coined the expression, “Beauty is skin deep” was most certainly of sane and sound mind – never was a truer word spoken!

Beauty – in the physical sense of the term – has long been sought after since times immemorial. Whether one thinks of ancient ethnic groups like the Incas, the Mayas, the Aztecs and of countless others, one fact is crystal clear – the quest for beauty existed then, as it does so to the present day & times. Let us go back to The Indus Valley Civilization – one of the world’s earliest, urban Bronze Age civilizations – along with its contemporaries – Mesopotamia & Ancient Egypt. The Indus Valley civilization flourished around the Indus River basin – whence its name. When archaeologists carried out extensive excavations in the ancient fortified cities of Mohenjo-Daro & Harappa, in the Punjab, North Pakistan, they were amazed to learn how advanced in thinking, planning and ideology this ancient culture was. The entire, ancient city was laid out in symmetrical, rectangular blocks made of brick; they had an advanced drainage system, a Great Bath, a college, an assembly hall, a granary & a cemetery for the proper burial of their dead. They possessed exemplary artistic and writing skills too. Among a lot of interesting & unique artifacts that were discovered at that time was ornamentation of various kinds – jewellery of silver, gold & precious stones. The use of jewellery was very popular – they had nose pins, necklaces, bangles and bindis. (A bindi is a red dot on a woman’s forehead, used as a symbol of marriage – but now is worn by unmarried women too.) They used eye makeup as a form of enhancing their aesthetics, appearance and beauty.

In contemporary times, plastic surgery is a medical specialty concerned with the correction or restoration of form and function. It includes reconstructive surgery, hand surgery, microsurgery, and the treatment of burns, injuries or deformities so as to cause the least amount of scarring after surgery. Nowadays, cosmetic surgery – a branch of plastic surgery – is the rage for improving one’s aesthetic appearance, through surgical procedures. The most common surgical procedures that are extremely popular, especially in the USA today are – mammoplasty (breast augmentation or reduction), mastopexy (breast-lift), rhinoplasty (nose job, nose reshaping), liposuction (suction-assisted fat removal), rhytidectomy (face-lift), abdominoplasty (tummy-tuck),  the buttock augmentation/lift,  the chemical peel, labiaplasty (surgery on the female genitalia), otoplasty (ear surgery), brow lift, chin augmentation, cheek augmentation, cheek lift, hair transplantation,  the use of collagen or fat injections and eyelid surgery. Non-surgical procedures include the use of Botox, Hyaluronic Acid (Hylaform, Juvederm and Restylane), Laser Hair Removal, Microdermabrasion and Laser Skin Resurfacing. Cosmetic surgery has become a multi-million dollar industry in today’s day and age and is often – though not exclusively –  used by all manner of celebrities, actors, musicians, politicians, etc. to enhance their aesthetics and appearance. What few people realise is that these cosmetic surgery procedures have permanent, non-reversible results – if a person has had multiple face-lifts, lip plumping, etc. the face tends to taken on an artificial and ‘fixed’ quality – the eyes look stretched, the skin is often so taut and tight that the suppleness of normal facial expressions is lost. One should not forget how much money, pain, time, effort and energy go into fulfilling these procedures.

The use of makeup in the form of foundation creams, wrinkle-smoothening creams, eye-shadow, lip-stick, nail varnish are used often to enhance one’s physical appearance and the results after the use of makeup are nothing short of amazing – it really does alter one’s appearance for the better! However, there is bound to be a down-side too – these artificial aids to beauty, used to hide natural signs of aging or the greying of hair; balding, etc contain chemicals that harm the skin and cause it to look splotchy, creased, pock-marked or even pitted, in the long run. In beauty parlors or hair salons – the use of a pedicure, a manicure, hair styling/dyeing/streaking//tinting/straightening/ironing/perming, facials are all methods used by the majority of us to look not just presentable but beautiful. All sorts of branded clothing and footwear have been created to promote beauty. Men and women, of varied ages and lifestyles, frequent gymnasiums in pursuit of the perfect, toned, slim physique. The use of body piercing and tattoos has increased significantly. The jewellery industry is booming today – whether it be jewellery of gold, silver, diamonds or other precious stones – people crave it! It would not surprise me too much either, if scientists and researchers are looking, to this day, for a secret elixir that will maintain and enhance the fountain of youth forever!

All these efforts for what, you might be tempted to ask ? All in the endless pursuit of enduring physical beauty and to feed one’s ever-increasing vanity, that’s why! That is Beauty….

Take a moment to consider this fact – when one is born an inexorable truth is that one will age and die someday. It is the unchanging law of nature – yet whoever said that elderly people do not look beautiful? Why can’t people just age gracefully and graciously, as they ought to? In not doing so, we are going against all the dictates of nature and the artificial aids to beauty used today have given rise to more and more cases of life-threatening, fatal diseases like cancer. No one seems to think of that! We have all evolved from animals – why not take special measures to tame the Beast within us – the devious serpent that rears its ugly head in the form of all the various negative emotions and behaviors that make up the structure of all mortals – selfishness, envy, ego, pride, vanity, greed, sloth, vindictiveness, meanness and nastiness of character? It is astonishing how people have lost sight of the beauty of character and personality that is, in itself, ageless – the attitude of loving, caring, sharing, selflessness, kindness, consideration and generosity of spirit despite all the odds that make up the obstacles of Life. Cultivate your inner beauty – it is akin to a glowing and evergreen halo; it shines through forever and transcends the natural aging process. Truly beautiful people make other people look and feel beautiful just like them – it is, in no small way, a reflection of the goodness and benevolence of their character on others.

Artificial aids to beauty are and will always stay superfluous, transient and temporary – a veneer of outer, physical beauty that is skin-deep and nothing more – beauty that is there today and gone tomorrow, just like a ‘ship in the night.’ Hence the expression – “Dust to dust; ashes to ashes.” Beauty of character and personality is the real beauty –in its truest essence and form – one that remains forever etched in people’s hearts as a blessed memory.

Never forget – “Beauty is, as beauty does!”

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