Beauty Lies in The Eye……..

           

By Prof. Dewakar Goel

            In the recent years our country has undergone a phase of metamorphosis, in the field of so called modernity of adopting the western culture on the pretext of advancement Miss Universe, Miss World, Miss Asia Pacific and Mrs. World  gave the name and fame  to our country when Indian women were crowned. Well, our country is still known for its cultural heritage and women are taken in very high esteem and its quite natural in our custom to give respect to women. Sari is considered as most respectable garment for the women and our International Air carrier Air India always felt proud in following this dress by their Air Hostesses who are going all over the world. It is quite a debatable issue as to whether young Indian girls should depict their body by wearing swimsuits etc. for various beauty contests which are finally covered under the garb of brain and beauty. This beauty concept  has spread so fast that nearly every big city in the country is organising Miss ------ contest every year. Bombay has taken the lead of further going to name Miss -------- after the name of a locality like Miss Borivali etc. The organisors of these contests may be encashing for the large gathering they generate for these events and sponsors are easily available for the sake of promoting their products. It is really a question whether evaluators, organisers and viewers are really interested for brain and beauty or the component of sex may be by way of viewing the semi-nude girls is involved.

            The politicians have not wasted time in picking up this issue and settling the score of political rivalry. In the State of Uttar Pradesh the Govt. is contemplating to ban these kind of contests for safeguarding the Indian culture and modesty of Indian women. Whereas the opposition are advocating beauty contests on the plea that it is a matter of fundamental right of freedom. Some people say that when men can reveal their body for various shows of body building then why not the women should be allowed to do the same.           There is nothing wrong if at the world level our women can show their worth for having  rare combination of beauty, intellect and intelligence but if it comes for making them as sex object by wearing revealing clothes competing on the counts of body measurements 80-60-80 cms. Or so. It should be taken in a different way not necessarily a slim lady is only beautiful and intelligent an healthy lady may have more intellectualness and intelligence then why she should be discarded when she has got pleasing personality and presentable outlook. Another dimension of this beauty contest has come in the recent years when our country went for economic liberalization. Lot of multinational companies are coming to India and with our developing economy there is enough scope for all kinds of consumer products.

A common man easily gets attracted and influenced if Miss World, Miss Universe and for that matter even Miss India advocates for a particular product. Our Media plays a very important role in projecting the image of beauty queen. Even politicians, bureaucrats and people from elite group of society feel elevated when they are in news with beauty queens. A number of promises are made by young girls contesting for the crown such as upliftment of  the society, helping the downtrodden children and for cancer and AIDS patients and above all for enhancing the image of the country in the eye of the world.   Off course big amount of money to the tune of one crore or so can be generated by the beauty queens once they succeed but do they really utilise even a small fraction of this money for the real cause which should otherwise go to the tune of answers given by them. Well we have seen that these beauty queens become more inclined to join the film industry where they have the glamour, fame and money and get the title of film star say heroine or the queen of millions of hearts. One way we must not

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object for their wishes because as a human being everybody has got the right to do what he wants and there should not be any embargo on the efforts made by a person for achieving the goals.

            Everybody wants to earn money also to have name,  fame and sometimes for achieving these even a person may adopt unfair means then why we should blame the girls involved in beauty contests. We have the answers for it being Indian. When I say Indian then I look for Muslim countries, have you ever found even a single girl from Pakistan, Afghanistan or from middle east contesting for any such title. Please don’t have the meaning that the girls from these countries are not beautiful and intelligent rather I must say that they may have much more talent but their society, custom and religion does not permit for the same. It all goes well as long as there is no discontentment among these girls.When I am touching different angles of this issue then why to forget about sexual harassment to women, rape, molestation and outraging the modesty of women. A beauty queen, when a person sees her or even sees a photograph may have the fantasy of being with her as evident from the answers given in the Kaun Banega Crorepati Shows. When a person even at the age of fifty plus in presence of his wife  does not hesitate in saying his wish to have a vacation abroad with his favorite heroine. Now let us debate why we should have the thinking that the beauty queens are available for fulfilling their wish and what right they have got to say so. In fact serious objection can be raised on this issue but the reality remains that once they are celebrity it is taken as public property. You can have any number of photographs anywhere and think as how you wish.

            I may recall a very interesting survey in Bombay when an intellectual woman took the interview of hundred  men right from the age of 25 to 60 and asked the question  “If ******** requests you for a love child, will you agree ?”. Believe me ninety nine said YES having the gesture of pleasant dream in their mind. The one person left out said NO and when he was asked to give the reason he said that his brother-in-law was listening to his answer so he could not say the truth.

Now, let us confide ourselves that we love beauty by appearance and for that matter must except that the beauty lies in the skin deep. Now, why all this big jargons of beauty, brain, intellectualness and intelligence and so on so forth………

Still we all Indians should feel proud that our Women are beautiful much more than others in the world because beauty lies in the eye of a person and for that matter all eyes of the people in the world are so tuned to see Indian women as the most beautiful women in the world. Let it go like this for years ahead because if Olympic gold medal is not there then at least a diamond crown is won.