Oh! Gorgeous Me

She transformed:

From a beauty queen to a "God knows what thing" now...

Her values transformed:
Then: To win the Miss World' 1994 crown, she said that if she became Miss World, 'she was clear about what she would do.  She was concerned for the world’s suffering little children and about poverty and inequalities of race, colour and sex' when asked, "What she would do if she won a Miss World title?" 



Ongoing: This poor girl could not achieve her social ambitions as she was quite busy with her lousy affairs and link-ups with bollywood stars. And/Or that she is busy attending film festivals and high-end parties and/or trying on and deciding what skimpy clothes to pair while pairing with young-heart-throbbing Hrithik Roshan up North to old-heart-attacking Rajnikanth down South and/or busy making money out of her wedding pictures to her daughter's yet to be released pics. Maybe thats why she is not able to achieve her life's (social) ambition yet... understandable, so sad... So much for her concern for world poverty, inequalities and other blah, blahs. 


By the by, this was the woman who had said that if she could change one thing in history, she would change her year of birth so that "she" could have stopped the world wars, (duh! excuse me, I just came back after banging my head on a tree) an answer that made her runners-up in the miss India title. Maybe she contemplated doing that while dancing around trees in rain-drenched clothes... and how nice of her to "try" and stop all existing wars!

Everything changes... yet, "WE" remain constant:

as we are busy wondering if Aishu's figure has changed (will change) after child birth, whether she looks slim(?!) or if  the floral Roberto Cavalli gown and high heeled Guiseppe Zanotti shoes as Yahoo and other sites have been failing endlessly yet continuously to promote along with a total conviction (we are all expected to agree with the power of the media, make-up and photo-editing cast upon us) that "yes, maathaji, India's bahuji, India's only pride, the true face of every Indian woman, has ofcourse slimmed and changed the face of Earth", I must do so before yahoo and co. burst with more promotions (even though I personally feel that a swine would look as good if it had been covered by a bed-sheet from head to toe just as well and calling 'a swine' 'an unicorn' a million times still won't allow it to fly... or would it as expected?!) 


And why all this effort to glamourize her? Sources say that its because she is supposed to have brought back that second-glance at Indian women around the world (Hope that people who say that also remember that so did Poonam Pandey, Mallika Sherawat and that Indian girl who bares it all in all those mms scandals and web-cam leaks.) Thanks to her and all those men who got her there. Otherwise Indian women were not "looked at" at all (Poor pathetic females!) Hence all this and more of these attention-seeking obsession as a country waits for her highness, former miss world to slim down and for her blessed mercy to have men cracking their necks once again, when an Indian woman walks by... 




At the end of the day:
...the face of the real India, the real Indian woman, the real Indian is still the same and looks something like this:

Happy, trying hard to keep a smile, in a face still hiding under that pallu, as she tries to make the ends meet, waiting for her man to come home undrunk, waiting for her children to reach home safe for the simple meal she has managed to prepare, from that rotting wheat she managed to bring home from our topied-babus who are more interested in exporting them to cows in England than distributing them to the poor inland, escaping those mercedes and hyabusas that children of some rich race, unknown to her, race for fun, zipping past her, disregarding safety (especially others) convinced that their mean machines are worth more than her life, still hiding in the shadows of darkness in her power-cut home fearing the greedy eyes that prowl the streets, spitting, urinating and waiting to taste her whole if she dared to venture out. No matter how hard she tries, she can barely save, thanks to the price hikes and the ongoing attempts by the country's elected keepers and only-at-times of "their" need emerging-civil societies in not controlling it as vote-mongers and fund-seekers still manage to scrape above all this, dusting the dirt beneath the carpet as they glorify India as ofcourse the land of the aam-admi."Yes boss, India shining indeed! Agreed, home minister, lest you list me too in your long list of India's grave internal threats and send the army to get me for speaking the truth nevertheless show dissent." 


She waits for her turn at the ration shop as she is turned away with no reason. She waits in line for her turn, in queue-less places and in rows where she will be pushed aside if not strong. She is treated nothing more than an object that cooks, cleans and bears children. Yet, she waits in line and claims her place patiently, yet again. Her shape? Her size? She cares not. All that she cares is the 3-square meals she can barely share with the ones at home before she can have the left-overs for herself. Designer clothes? Designer shoes? She wears not, untattered still-what she wears? she is thankful to be fortunate, she will wash it and wear it as many times till it tears (often even after, ever after.)

She is many yet one. She is not the one who leaves the country and runs away to a foreign land, from where she rattles her opinion (like anyone cares) nor the one who occasionally visits her country for vacations to tell everyone she meets how stinky and dirty this land is. She is brave and braves it all. She knows it all and still survives without running away (not that she has a choice), without a fuss and without a complaint. She maybe abused; yet won't complain. She may be beaten, bruised and might cry in pain; yet, won't complain. She maybe raped, at the police station where she is supposed to register her complaint, yet won't complain. She knows that she has more to gain than lose with her epic silence. 


Without caring a rat's-arse about what Aishwarya is, wants to be or would turnout to be, as the nation gapes in utter shock, the other real Indian woman manages to not lose her grip and takes care of her home and everyone in it who do not care for her, she is she and she is the woman, the real face of India that hides behind the pallu and gently smiles as our topied-babus and paid-media try to polish her, shine her, paint her rags and portray her to the rest of the world as something she is not or doesn't care to be. 


And as far as Aishu is concerned and as the fate of the rest of the valueless things go once it has gone past its expiry date, her next destination awaits. Lurking somewhere at the end of the road in the next turn, around the next pit stop when she will have enough time to spend reflecting on the well-structured meaningless answers she gave to win the crown; a place that has seen many like her and more, a place that waits silently in a corner and has been an eternal constant, a reminder that just like the game of chess, once it is all over, the king and the pawn go into the same box...

...the archives and the dustbin for the rich, the famous and the forgotten to rot.

p.c: 
http://ibnlive.in.com/photogallery/6367.html
http://www.volunteeringwithindia.org/our-programs/women-empowerment
http://www.sodahead.com/fun/which-country-has-the-most-beautiful-women-in-the-world/question-2422633/
http://www.pushpinderbagga.com/old-indian-women-portrait/171/
http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/Asia/India/East/West_Bengal/Kolkata/photo804093.htm
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Trash_dustbin.jpg
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/50-reservation-to-women-in-panchayat-raj-institutions-in-ap/773578/


Ref:
http://nitawriter.wordpress.com/2006/09/27/about-how-hollow-beauty-contests-really-are/
http://www.mothersforum.org/video/aishwarya-rais-baby-is-worth-5-million-dollar/