If looks could kill…

I can only further acclaim to the fact that girls are indeed beautiful. Much has been said about the art encompassed in their bodily figure; much forwards have been received about how God first made Man as a draft and said ‘Oops’, and then improvised when he made Woman and said ‘Practice makes perfect’; much has been said in films, comparing the ‘fairer sex’ (as they are more prominently called) to the beautiful things in this world. I, for one, can just nod my approval.

Not to be interpreted that I am currently in need of a girl for marriage considering my age and marital status, but this article was due from me for a long time. Of course, as the wise man says, beautiful girls and marriage are two separate things altogether!

A guy friend of mine (Mithun) once told a gal friend of mine (Ashwini) what simple pleasures she is missing by being a gal. He was referring to appreciating the beauty of the other gender, of deriving bountiful pleasures by just looking at girls and admiring the colour they added to an otherwise dull landscape! And Ashwini replied, quite succinctly, and with a wink in her eyes, “I only have to look at myself in the mirror!” Somehow, I felt the whole conversation to be very profound. While what Mithun said was very true, it was also equally true what Ashwini had said. Girls just have to look in the mirror and pamper themselves to feel the beauty within.

When I was in High school, where one learns a lot about Life in general and the other gender in particular, the concept of ‘eve-teasing’ and ‘rape’ always amused me. Keeping aside the fact that, of course, I strictly abhorred the two, it still was amusing because, there were a lot of girls who used to flaunt their, hmm, shall we say, ‘assets’, almost inviting to be eve-teased, to be raped, (assuming of course that ‘revenge’ is outside the scope for this chronicle). Some men, as we all know, are still very much uncultivated, true animals, and the aspect of a lady in revealing attire is as equivalent as showing blood on the hand to a shark in an open sea.

So then the question arose as to why this ‘flaunting’? My high school brain tried to figure out some answers. I then realized that there were girls who were naturally beautiful and then there were girls who were less lucky. Now, forget the beauty pageants, forget any sort of artificial beauty-enhancements, if a member of both the lucky and unlucky species were to stand, for example, in a bus-stand, needless to say, the majority of ‘men-turning-heads’ would be to the luckier of the two.

‘Men-turning-heads’, I realized, is in effect, actually a big compliment. A thing that makes anyone happy. It was like an unsaid compliment. Just an acknowledgement of beauty. While, turned heads is fulfilling, anything else further will be construed as bordering offensive. Here is where the distinction between the cultivated man and the uncultivated man lies.

While a man of culture and proper upbringing sums up a girl in a second, acknowledges the beauty and the curves, and might even turn for an appreciative second look, the uncultivated few mentally undress the girls through their eyes and make them feel vulnerable and scared. They ogle at them as if they are a delicacy to be eaten. As a means of male dominancy, they look at them as if they were servants, existing only to serve man and his basic instincts. And, to be fair to the cultivated men, it is this minority of the uncultivated few, who involve themselves in demeaning acts such as eve-teasing and rape, unable to control their desires.

Of course, the plight of the unlucky gal at the bus-stand is easily understood. No ‘men-turning-heads’ for her is a sad thing. Most gals want to attract attention sufficient enough to be appreciated. So, then comes into picture the artificial beauty-enhancers such as revealing dresses, make-up, extensive hair-do, et cetera, et cetera. Faced with such a scenario where the gal is trying her best to attract attention, and coupled with the presence of a few unruly men, the plan might backfire & its almost like mixing two important chemicals of a bomb.

Attire is an important feature of beauty. Everyone wants to look beautiful. So it makes sense to wear the perfect and fitting attire. Being in US for almost 2 years, made me realize how perfectly attired almost everyone was, barring of course, the crazy college-goers. Whether it was to office on weekdays or to malls on weekends, almost everyone is perfectly dressed for the occasion.

I had heard a catch-line that a lady’s skirt should be short enough to arouse curiosity but long enough to cover the subject matter! While it is right to be inline with the current fashion statement, it does become gross and indecent to be extra-revealing.

To be fair to male species as well, I have met some of the most handsome and dignified gentlemen one could ever come across. There was one person called Chris in the US office where I worked who tops the list. Coupled with a deep yet soft voice, handsomely tall and extremely helpful, he was, to me, an epitome of admirable ‘Gentlemanliness.’ Very few whom I have met are like him. After all, it is rare to see gentlemen than beautiful ladies!

Well, we all enjoy in beauty, don’t we? Beauty is exhibited in many ways around this world. A person is beautiful for what he is, more than the ‘looks’ that he has. And of course, the oft-quoted ‘Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder’ is very applicable.

Yet, there are some ‘simply-stunning’ girls. I remember my first year in office, when there was this extremely striking girl whom I was scared of looking, for I knew that if I looked, I would surely stare! In fact, if she was within eye-sight and walking in the direction towards me, I used to lower my eyes so that I wouldn’t have to look at her. For gals like her, a discreet look from a distance only was befitting!

Ravi Shastri, once, when commenting let out a ‘Oh! Lovely!!’ when the camera focused on a beautiful girl. After a pregnant pause, he admitted “I couldn’t help that!” Fair enough! P G Wodehouse, in many of his novels describes the beauty of the girls in his novels – and the effect it has on respective heroes – in his unique, humorous manner. One such description is thus: “Some girls seem to take the stuffing right out of you. I mean to say, there is something about their personality that paralyzes the vocal chords and reduces the contents of the brain to cauliflower.” How true!

Another thing that I often relate to whenever I see a stunning girl is the scene from the hilarious movie ‘Dumb and Dumber’ when Lauren Holly opens the door to Jim Carrey. As soon as she is out of sight, due to the sheer power of beauty, Jim clutches his heart and slumps down as if he had a massive heart attack! Now, for me, that’s a perfect picturisation of…

“If looks could kill…”!