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a blog on 'life' and other popular four letter words...

Sunday, May 22, 2011

The 'real beauty' in us

Even Cindy Crawford says that she does not wake up looking like Cindy Crawford.

Beauty and looking good are a integral part of our self esteem. We all have the urge to look, smell and sound good, cos it eventually makes us feel good.

And contrary to popular perception and much to the chagrin of my fellow brotherhood, let me reveal that we men have always been using women’s beauty products all along. Since time immemorial. Extensively (Sorry guys J).

Long before there was fairness cream for men, I used to surreptitiously wear women’s fairness cream. And I must say, it actually worked!! It did make me look fairer J. But my glee was short lived when one of my women colleagues recognized the scent of the cream on my face when we stood close to each other in the crowded bus back home and she yelled out to me in front of everyone in the crowded bus if I used women’s fairness cream. My new found fairness accentuated my red blushing face, which went bright red with embarrassment. That was the end of my love story with fairness cream. Till they recently came out with the odorless version (Thank God for R&D!!J).

My tryst with women’s beauty products continued with blackhead removers, moisturizers, sunscreen lotion and facewash. But the industry evolved to bring out products catering to men. I then started to be open about going for manicures, pedicures and massages. I also developed a profound obsession to smelling good and thus started my love affair with perfumes. My current vice is eye glasses and I have about 11 pairs of them, which I color coordinate with my wardrobe’s latest summer collection. J

But growing up, my macho buddies thought I was weird. In the mallu backwaters of God’s own country, where mallu macho was defined with ‘mundu’ and ‘mooch’, I lacked either. Also my cupboard having two shelves of beauty products, didn’t help my gender cause. And it seemed like I knew more about exfoliation than some of the women I dated then J. To the many raised eyebrows, I used to vociferously highlight that only real men use make-up (not that it helped much). Finally, Media came to my rescue again when they branded men who used beauty products as ‘Metrosexy’. They said that being metrosexy is cool and that metrosexy is the new sexy. Almost suddenly, I was ahead of the curve and my guy buddies found it easier to talk to me about beauty products as compared to asking their women friends. Suddenly, I was the new dude in the hostel. And I wore color coordinated glasses to boot. With matching scarfs. And I smelt Hugo Boss. Musk fragranced, that too. J

It’s been a decade since my journey with beauty products and I’ve learnt to respect women and men who wear make up. I like the fact that people take the effort to look, smell and feel good – it just shows that they love and care about themselves and that they are comfortable in their (moisturized)skins. J

But I also started to realize something else….

I now realize that the real beauty in ourselves is not in the way we groom ourselves; its something more profound: The real beauty in ourselves is our own selves only. And our best make-up is something which all of us have in abundance - ourselves.

We are all somebody to somebody else – we are children, parents, siblings, lovers, colleagues, neighbors and friends to other people. And they interact, cherish and value us not because we use the latest accessories or sport the latest trends (which does help, by the way ;)); they interact with us because we are ourselves. And that’s what makes all of us so special and so beautiful to everyone around us. And there is nobody else quite like it. There is a void in the universe that can be filled only by our own unique selves.

Our virtues, our vices, our prejudices, our prides, our loves, our lives, our hearts, our smiles and our selves are the real beauty in all of us. And we are all, soooo... beautiful!!

So here’s a toast to the most beautiful thing about us – our own selves.

To us -the ‘real beauty’ in us!

Cheers and Amen.

J




And like they say, "May all our happiness be true happiness and all our pain, champagne!!!" J

Dove and Yahoo! salutes the triumphant spirit of the Indian woman with Yahoo! Real Beauty - 'What is 'real beauty' to you?'. Go on, join the conversation....

If you like this post, promote me at ib, like me on facebook, or follow me here. If not, let's go get some beer J.



23 comments:

  1. Nice.......Quite a revelation about your tryst of beauty products and ELEVEN pairs of eye wear.
    But the ending of course is the clincher. Mirror that all of us keep hidden:-)

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  2. Really good! I loved the confession aspect to it ;)

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  3. Hey Sowmya..yup ...waitin fr the guys to kill me ..cum to think of it, think it is 13 :P...thnx fr droppin by, Sowmya:)

    Thnx Vinutha... glad u liked it :)

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  4. lot of products.. nice listed here.. here is a heart expressing what does true beauty means

    Someone is Special

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  5. "My new found fairness accentuated my red blushing face, which went bright red with embarrassment. "

    man i love your blog..

    nd moond n mooch...they r disgusting...until u can really look good in them.

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  6. Thnx Red :D.. yup, the staple of God's own Country ..thnx fr droppin by Red :D

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  7. Here's a girl from god's own country, reassuring you, that not ALL girls think mundu and moosh is the symbol of 'macho'. :/ I cannot imagine kissing a guy with a moosh [as shallow as that may sound, because after all, it's the real beauty that counts, right? ;)]

    Some aunty once said to me, when she learnt that I don't want a guy with a moosh, that 'real men' have moosh, or what's a man without a moosh, or something like that (her son was sitting right next to her, proudly sporting a thick foliage above his lips). To say in malayalam, "Aanungal aayal meesha vende?" So I said, let men have moustache,I just don't want it on my guy."

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  8. Loved this post, shared it on Twitter and you have won a special Badge for being a 'Sinner Against Gender Stereotypes' :)

    Badges for My Sins Against Gender Stereotypes'
    Congratulations.

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  9. Hey Spaceman Spiff..yippee!! thr is hope fr mooshless mallus like me :D thnx fr droppin by Spiff :)

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  10. Hey Indian Home Maker, WoW, thnx fr the award n the recognition... finally won something :D

    thnx so much
    :)

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  11. Heh, Iknew you were a mallu right from the moment I started reading. the sarcasm and dry humour is kind of getting to be one of our genetic traits, no? ;) Grossly biased generalizations apart, good, funny, refreshing post bro! All the best for the contest, I sadly have just one entry conpared to your three :P

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  12. Till they recently came out with the odorless version (Thank God for R&D!!J).

    Thank GOD for sense of humor. It makes the life tolerable

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  13. Frm one mellu bro 2 another, thi thi thaaro thi thi thai..(i didnt knw wht else 2 say...yes, PJs bloom in my family tree:P)
    Hey Neeraj, all da best 2 u 2 man...next time, be informed - we can change the scores - i do accept cash ;)

    Jokes apart, thnx fr droppin by Neeraj :)

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  14. U said it, Sairam... if it weren't fr sense of humor in the general public, I wud hv been stoned to death years ago :D

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  15. i didnt read this...too drunk...hate those random letters i have to type to comment here..

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  16. Tys, I can imagine the misfortune... pls accept my condolences.. :P

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  17. LOL @
    odorless version of fairness creams - thank god for R&D
    mooch & mund

    hilarious post

    & the gyan at the end - part of the 'metrosexy' thing i guess :)

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  18. Hey Sujatha, glad tht u liked it.. thnx fr droppin by :) ..yup, metrosexy, like another blogger said - he who gets sexy only in Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Bangalore n Chennai :)

    do drop by more often Sujatha :)

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  19. R-A-J..So there you are! with beauty products I see :D Yes, the real beauty lies in us....and in our hearts! Hilarious post btw....

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  20. Hey GG, yap, nw u knw the secret of my everlastin beauty :D thnx fr droppin by GG n glad u liked it :)

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