What does real beauty mean to you??

Ever since I came to know of this contest, I kept brain-storming what is an honest answer to this..I couldn’t answer in a jiffy. But the answer seemed simpler than I thought..To start with I want to write about how the perception of beauty has changed in my mind over the years. When I was younger I always attributed beauty to the fairer complexion. Born with a dusky complexion, I always felt I missed out on something..I felt God forgot something when creating me. Like most of the girls in India, I too tried fairness creams, but without any luck. My concept on fairness creams has now changed. The industry runs only on hope, hope that someday I may become fairer. Today when I see anyone running behind fairness creams, all that I want to tell them is, get real folks!! There’s no way you are getting any fairer :-)

Anyway to get back to the point, so I always felt less endowed with beauty. Through a greater part of my teen years, I was a huge build (or so I call myself), I was tall and also well built. I wanted to be thin and with a great figure like most of my peers. I starved myself and yearned to look beautiful. Again I attributed my physique to beauty. I always felt shallow about myself being less beautiful. To cut the long sorry story short, one fine day it dawned on me, that my chances of me getting any fairer or thinner is very slim. I better start living a life. Towards my early 20s I realised this and started to dress up to please my own eyes. I told myself, it doesn’t matter if someone considers me beautiful. All that matters is what I feel about myself. Do I continue telling myself I am dusky and fat or that I take them in my stride and walk in pride? I decided the latter. I felt deeper when I thought of myself as a person who is beyond my looks. I am a person with stronger values, abilities like none other. The fact of matter was that, beyond the many things, I was one of the many unique creations. There is no other person as beautiful as me or even close to what I look like. I am bestowed with beauty which no other person has. Whether someone else likes it or not, I am proud of my looks. As this thought sunk in, I felt a change in how I felt about myself, how I dressed, how I looked. And this change started penetrating into different aspects of my life. There was no significant change in my physique, but there was a mountain of change in my mind. As time progressed, I found a lot of people admiring this Bold, beautiful and mindful person (which added to my budding confidence). But there was something deeper which was building within me. I was growing as a person and I was sculpting a better individual.

I worked hard on building my character. I wanted to be that person I am not ashamed of when I look in the mirror. This was building an innate confidence. When I saw myself in a new perspective, I felt stronger and something which is hard to describe in words. In all probabilities, my looks haven’t changed drastically over the years. But my personality has definitely changed. I feel more confident and stronger. My experiences have made me what I am. Today I see beauty in a new light. I see beauty in every little thing. A baby’s innocent smile, a puppy’s love, a mother’s hug, the first rains, the little drops of dew on a fresh leaf and also the ocean like spark of the eyes – all describe the most beautiful form of love. As they say, beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder; I find beauty in its purest forms today. It’s an ethereal feeling to experience beauty. Where there’s love, one can understand beauty. Where there’s unconditional love, you see beauty even in most crooked object.

In retrospect today, I feel I wish I could tell my teenage self that you are beautiful the way you are. And the need to be famous among your peers or to have a fan following is not a necessity for a beautiful self. Well, no regrets. Today I stand with a head held high, proud of my face, my body, my achievements and experiences alike.

--Shreya