Beauty: Evolving and Revolving!

‘Nandhini, if you wouldn’t take it personal, I have to make this comment about people of Tamilnadu’.

‘Yes?’

‘Man, what’s beautiful to those oldies out there?’

‘???’

‘The old people admire and appreciate the beauty of some girls. Well, you know how those beauties were! Of dark complexion, some were really pitch-black! Old-fashioned dressing….oiled and tightly combed hair…… unimaginably gaudy coloured clothes……please tell me, how on damn Earth can they appear beautiful to somebody’s eyes? 😡

A wretched-looking colleague was once desperate to get this resolved 😆 Being a non-resident Tamilian, it’s common to listen to such comments from people of other states and see how they get mad at the lifestyles of Tamilnadu. No offense, dear Tamilians. I am one, after all 😉

No matter how much I could explain about what we call as kalai (a term with more of an aesthetic sense than beauty), he could get nowhere near in identifying the beauty in Tamil girls. I only thought whosoever had said ‘what would be ugly in a garden constitutes beauty in a mountain’ should have been a Tamilian in his previous life 😐 (It’s Victor Hugo, by the way).

What really is beautiful then? I have met hundreds of people through all these years. When I think about the faces which I had admired with open mouth, there was something warm which all these faces have communicated to me beyond their features. As a kid, fairy tale character Cinderella appeared beautiful to me. Probably because she was shown as an embodiment of love and she could never hurt others. When I was in school, my English teacher was beautiful to me. She was dark, she was fat, she was short – but she was polite with a charming smile. Now I reflect that the silent crush I had had for Oliver Twist and Robin Hood must have been a result of her passionate narrations 🙄

In my teens, a girl I used to meet at the tuitions was explicitly beautiful to me. She had lovely features and was a heart-throb to many guys. Yet there was an amazing simplicity in her gestures and a profound kindness in her looks.

In college, there was an irresistible pull to admire a hostel mate’s face – it should have been the constant cheerfulness she radiated.

While I was living on my own, the unassuming confidence in a roommate attracted my senses to take a look at her again and again. So, that’s how beauty has evolved in my mind – from love to kindness to simplicity to cheerfulness to confidence. 

I really don’t know if I’ve admired men faces as much as women’s. There must have been few, let me give a try. The school pupil leader’s was a charming face to me. He was stern and unbending to girls. Perhaps, his genuinity gave that charm to his face in my mind. Hardly there are other faces which stand out in terms of beauty. Why is beauty not in sync with you men? 👿

But I should admit that men who admire beauty be in girls or in other things appear beautiful 😮 Yes, their sense of admiration makes them beautiful to me. I don’t refer in being handsome. That’s like a girl being pretty. But not all handsome guys and pretty girls need to be beautiful, agree? So beauty in men has only evolved in me from being genuine to being admirers, I can add honesty too.

A thing of beauty is a joy forever! As a little girl, rich colours in flowers, in ornaments, in clothes, in pictures penetrated deep into me. And the full moon against the dark sky and traditionally dressed idols in temples gave me a fascinating joy.

          As I grew up, the intricacies in sculptures and carvings, the realism in paintings, the grace in bharatanatyam and odyssey, an open-hearted writing of an author, the conceptualization in some movies – they all have reminded me of what beauty is! The evolution of beauty in things was from little joys to magnificient art forms.

Beauty beyond my eyes? Water was beautiful to me as a child. It was beautiful when the first drops of rain touched my face!

       A walnut brownie cake + a scoop of vanilla ice cream + fried cashew nuts + a spoon of hot chocolate – you know how it feels when this combo reaches my tongue? Well, it feels heaven! Not exaggerating but every time I have a hot chocolate fudge, I feel a sense of gratitude to life.

A romantic melody which touches my soul deep, the chillness hitting hard on my face while travelling near the window seat, the smell of hotel dosai, chutney, sambhar while waiting for food (I told you I am a Tamilian 😉 ) – were a proof for the existence of beauty beyond my eyes!

This post would feel incomplete without remembering the beauty in feelings – in the many feelings of love and life. As a child, the feeling of security with my mother, the feeling of togetherness with my sister, caring and sharing with friends, of bhakthi and divinity with God, of companionship with many others, of passion and elation with work, of peace and harmony with destiny, of love and trust with everything else and all of the above with that chosen one for me – it’s only such intangible realities that make my perception of beauty complete. 

What I’ve admired as beauty – in women, in men, in things, in feelings, and in all other various forms, has been always evolving and I am sure it continues to evolve. Well, it does so to every one of us too. And what makes each one of us apart are the individualistic values. Whatever our values are rooted on, be it, kindness, complexion, attitude – our perception of beauty keeps revolving too on the same grounds. Remember, the wretched-looking guy is never going to understand how beautiful Tamil girls are 😎

And my last note:

Evolving and revolving, beauty can make or break this world. As you read this post, introspect for a while what values you hold for yourself. There is nothing exclusive as real beauty. The more pleasant our values evolve to, the more we will begin to recognize the beautiful things around us and within us. And we all will one day realize that it’s compassion which can make humanity as a whole BEAUTIFUL!  And as we all realize that, our topic would have evolved from ‘What is real beauty to me’ to ‘All that is around me is beautiful’ 🙂

Thanks to Indiblogger and Yahoo! Dove Real Beauty. I could not have spent a better time to recollect all that had been beautiful so far. 

You can reach me at nandhini.pfs@gmail.com

Photo Courtesy

Cinderella – http://media.onsugar.com

Tulips – www.wallpaper4u.org

Rain – www.trulygraphics.com

Love – http://api.ning.com