I have always marveled the cult of cosmetic surgery and things people do to look better. There are lesser versions, like braces and contact lenses. As a wannabe artist, I have long wondered about what is beauty. I remain an amateur, because instead of creating beautiful things, I spend my time thinking about them.
I have long been hearing about how it isn't facial features which matter, but personality and elegance and poise and whatnot. There is nothing wrong with it, and it is true. Expressions invest even an ordinary face with great beauty. But it sounded to me like an excuse. A case of sour grapes, stories plain looking people could tell themselves as consolation. I mean, if personality is that which matters, it may be something independent of beauty. So Aishwarya Rai or whoever remains 'beautiful' and Om Puri has personality. My problem was I thought this weak. I don't find Aishwarya Rai or whoever beautiful, in any way. And I think Om Puri is beautiful.
So this is what I figure now.
The distinction is between a jungle, a wild forest, and a corporate park with pretty roads and mowed grass, tree-lined avenues and crystal clear lakes. When you first look at it, the neat, organized, sprawling, glass and
steel and shapely green corporate campus obviously looks so much more attractive. It is, in a way. And the jungle is chaotic and wild and scary and messy.
So you start living in the corporate park. You like to the first day. You like it the second day. And then, slowly you start ignoring it. It doesn't really matter. With time it starts depressing you. The straight lines,
sharp edges, start making you lonely and disconnected. The neatness lends a sense of isolation. The structures now seem lifeless. You may even begin to hate it.
Case 2 - You start living in the scary wilderness. It is a messy jungle, and you can see no clear pattern. It is all an untidy jumble. You are lost the first day. Lost the second day. A little less lost the third day. On
the fourth day, you find a tree you recognize. On the fifth day you see a soulful reflection of the evening sun in the forgotten pond. On the sixth day you recognize a narrow pathway to the wild flowers. And so slowly you
get to know this uncertain wilderness. You find more every day, a purple flower, a hidden mountain stream you locate by its sound, a migratory bird, flying to some distant land. With passing time, you love your jungle even more.
So which is more beautiful? The designed corporate park or the natural forest?
I think it is the same with human beings. The beauty of a face or body shows itself with exploration. It lies in its messiness, in its distortions, in its hidden crevices. It lies in its natural complexity. Beauty is an acquired taste. It takes a long time to find. But it speaks of the wonders of mother nature.
Beauty lies in our flaws, not in our notions of perfection.
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