Looking good, feeling great
It’s women who make men’s world glitzy and glamorous
DIWALI IS a season of supreme spectacles. The lights and crackers apart, it is an occasion for us Indians (especially women) to adorn, and enhance our presence with sparklers — designer clothes, chunky pieces of ornament, sleek getups and an attitude that makes us worthy of climbing on cover pages of fashion magazines. What a splash we made in the past few days of unstoppable festivity with our colours and coutures!
We confess — we women have an unrelenting penchant for dressing up and looking glossy. The unimaginative puritans may call us loud and ostentatious, but they are not going to slow us down with their killjoy comments. Regardless of whether they recognise it or not, there is no mistaking the fact that we women make men’s world glitzy and glamorous.
The utmost that men can do to jazz up a party hall on their own is to spare the trousers and tees, and slither into a colourful kurta-pyjama, or to those who don’t mind the extra zing, a sherwani. Now that will make you men look like a smudged, half moon in a starless sky. You are complete only when we, resplendent in our looks, walk beside you as you enter a room. It is the grace that we carry that rubs off on you, and we recognise that secret glint in your eyes as little gasps fill the room when we enter.
It’s a different matter that they are too feeble in frequency for you to hear, but our ears are sharper than yours and can sense the slightest stir in the air. We know who is in awe, who is in envy and who is going weak in the knees. So what if we stretch a little and go that extra mile in adding some star value to your lives? We know that you secretly bask in our extended glory.
Getting there isn’t easy, so stop complaining about the time and money we spend on it. We need at least an hour to morph our mediocre aspect to a peerless pose. There are two occasions when we are terribly confused — one, while deciding the menu for the day, and two, while deciding on our costume for an outing.
There are numerous things that go into a perfect ensemble and it takes time and patience to get it right. The missing accessories are a major irritant too. So, while we are busy sorting things out, you may spend some extra time with cricket, business news, office mail or whatever you like. We will make an appearance and an announcement when we are ready, so stop getting on our nerves with frequent checks. Don’t ask if wearing a saree was necessary when we didn’t know the art of draping it, or if we couldn’t have ironed our hair earlier. We have our unique ways and we brook no unsolicited comments.
Now it isn’t just the people at the party that we have to impress, you see. There are scores of friends out there whose ‘LIKE’ we must garner. So getting the tint right is now more important than ever. Pictures aren’t just graphic representations to us anymore. They are means of boosting our self-esteem and the number of LIKE can make or break our precarious pride.
We know that between home and the elevator, nothing would have changed, yet we would like to scrutinise in the elevator mirror from all angles, just to make sure that the curls and folds are in place, and that there is no possibility of a cheesy wardrobe malfunction.
It vexes us to ask you every time we step out, “How do I look?” So we don’t, many times. But we realise that when we look good, you feel great too. We only wish that you express it more audibly. Complimenting can only make us more complimentary, for aren’t we the yin and yang of life? Asha Iyer Kumar is a freelance journalist based in Dubai