The Wedding of a Princess.
There's a wedding in our family. Our daughter Soniya is a few weeks away from trying the knot with the love of her life, Akhilesh. The atmosphere is festive, the day feels incredibly short considering the multitude of tasks to be executed. All waking hours are an unending flurry of activities, to-dos, deadlines, last minute realisations, rectifications, alterations. A sweet chaos ,a jaaz symphony,an insane happiness. Invitations waiting to be dispatched, shopping for bridal accessories, politely turning down dinner invitations, finalizing the wedding rituals and ceremonies, collaborating with service providing agencies, rehearsing for the sangeet....... the list goes on and on.
My wife, Medha and Soniya are continuously discussing color combinations, attires, protocols for the mehendi, sangeet, reception ceremonies.
The bride to be, Soniya is all charged and enthusiastic about every small detail. She's possibly, one of the most accomplished, beautiful, kind hearted, intelligent lady I have come across. ( Sorry, second only to my wife- )
When I see her going about the different tasks, my mind is overcome with memories and emotions. This little girl, just a few years ago was pushing hard and studying almost maniacally for completing her thesis. The topic she chose was- "Designing entertainment spaces for the visually impaired." Her ideas, her approach, her presentation truly had the touch of ingenuity. She had to deal with a bit of hostility from a couple of professors, who could not digest her creative genius. They rebuked her ideas, and criticised her efforts merely to assert their position and power. Needless to say, she excelled in the Jury, with her principal himself acknowledging that her performance was unprecedented.
She then made her way to Ahmedabad to work with a leading architect and interior designer. She carved a place for herself, and soon was working on an assignment in the prestigious NID. She would in a short span impress her superiors and colleagues with her sincerity, creativity, aesthetics, and competence.
She thereafter worked her way to a master's program in a top Art School- School of Art Institute in Chicago. Here too, she graduated with flying colors, braving the extremely hostile Chicago windy weather. She did it rather effortlessly with elan, and aplomb. The young girl had metamorphosed into a young lady with a Master's degree in Product Design. Wow.
As I got familiar with this prodigal daughter, it redefined my concept of two highly contentious , enigmatic domains.
Woman and Beauty.
Traditionally and conventionally, a beautiful woman was supposed to have loads of attitude, a touch me not aura, a very snooty and pricey disposition. She had to have tissues at hand, to blot any traces of moisture on her brow, or then that imaginary residual trace of coffee at the angle of her mouth after finishing her cuppa. She had to look menacingly at even a minor breach of etiquette with a " How gross" knotted eyebrows expression. A beautiful lady was honestly a bit intimidating. Specially to an untamed, casual, and earthy person likes me. I would be forced into behaving and doing things very unnaturally.
All beautiful ladies had to have a casual disdain for the lesser mortals with whom they very condescendingly interacted. She was expected to pull out a small mirror from the Gucci handbag and touch up her eyeliner or lipstick. She had to have an air of displeasure, cursing the solitary bead of perspiration that dared to emerge whenever she left the confines of the Air Conditioned milieu. She had to feign irritation at the constant attention she drew from lecherous eyes, on which she actually thrived.She was not expected to eat street food, that spelt nemesis for her porcelain complexion. She had to sport a stressed look. She was never supposed to laugh loudly or hysterically. Her amusement had to be restricted to a cosmetic smile that had a very limited frequency. . How could she ever be the cheerful, lively, funfilled damsel with a great sense of humor, who laughed animatedly and uncontrollably on discovering comedy in the mundane ?.
If she did, these attributes were to be to closeted. Revealed only in the tight inner circle. Beauty was never supposed to be trivialized to a 'girl next door' commodity with easy accessibility. Soniya broke these conceptions. On an occasion,she climbed into a crane-lift in the dead of the night along with her room-mate, to lend a hand to painting an overhead bridge. These impromptu acts could never be the attributes of a prototype, mannequinesque beauty. Her beauty was augmented by spontaneity, ease, back slapping camaraderie, compassion, a very sharp intellect, an unending curiosity to learn anything from Vedanta to Quantum Physics to cosmology. She simultaneously exuded elegance, poise and ease that made everyone very comfortable. Her looks, her personna were striking but never served as uncomfortable struts that distanced. She had an approachability, an affability, that endeared. Physical beauty that's skin deep is transient, and fades with time. Beauty of the soul, fragrance of being a good human being, warmth of the heart are far more enduring and the most potent cosmetics. She has her beautiful head firmly fixed on her shoulders. There isn't a trace of conceit in her demeanor. She is not a bit self-conscious and never makes others conscious of her virtues. My impression and conception of a beautiful woman was entirely misplaced or so it seemed. The young girl that I had known , probably was kissed by the frog of destiny to transform into a Princess. She certainly is Destiny's own child. It looks all set to be the wedding of the season. Whilst all are working ceaselessly and tirelessly, I'm busy searching for traces of royalty in myself to justify being the parent of this Princess. God bless the Royal Couple.
There's a wedding in our family. Our daughter Soniya is a few weeks away from trying the knot with the love of her life, Akhilesh. The atmosphere is festive, the day feels incredibly short considering the multitude of tasks to be executed. All waking hours are an unending flurry of activities, to-dos, deadlines, last minute realisations, rectifications, alterations. A sweet chaos ,a jaaz symphony,an insane happiness. Invitations waiting to be dispatched, shopping for bridal accessories, politely turning down dinner invitations, finalizing the wedding rituals and ceremonies, collaborating with service providing agencies, rehearsing for the sangeet....... the list goes on and on.
My wife, Medha and Soniya are continuously discussing color combinations, attires, protocols for the mehendi, sangeet, reception ceremonies.
The bride to be, Soniya is all charged and enthusiastic about every small detail. She's possibly, one of the most accomplished, beautiful, kind hearted, intelligent lady I have come across. ( Sorry, second only to my wife- )
When I see her going about the different tasks, my mind is overcome with memories and emotions. This little girl, just a few years ago was pushing hard and studying almost maniacally for completing her thesis. The topic she chose was- "Designing entertainment spaces for the visually impaired." Her ideas, her approach, her presentation truly had the touch of ingenuity. She had to deal with a bit of hostility from a couple of professors, who could not digest her creative genius. They rebuked her ideas, and criticised her efforts merely to assert their position and power. Needless to say, she excelled in the Jury, with her principal himself acknowledging that her performance was unprecedented.
She then made her way to Ahmedabad to work with a leading architect and interior designer. She carved a place for herself, and soon was working on an assignment in the prestigious NID. She would in a short span impress her superiors and colleagues with her sincerity, creativity, aesthetics, and competence.
She thereafter worked her way to a master's program in a top Art School- School of Art Institute in Chicago. Here too, she graduated with flying colors, braving the extremely hostile Chicago windy weather. She did it rather effortlessly with elan, and aplomb. The young girl had metamorphosed into a young lady with a Master's degree in Product Design. Wow.
As I got familiar with this prodigal daughter, it redefined my concept of two highly contentious , enigmatic domains.
Woman and Beauty.
Traditionally and conventionally, a beautiful woman was supposed to have loads of attitude, a touch me not aura, a very snooty and pricey disposition. She had to have tissues at hand, to blot any traces of moisture on her brow, or then that imaginary residual trace of coffee at the angle of her mouth after finishing her cuppa. She had to look menacingly at even a minor breach of etiquette with a " How gross" knotted eyebrows expression. A beautiful lady was honestly a bit intimidating. Specially to an untamed, casual, and earthy person likes me. I would be forced into behaving and doing things very unnaturally.
All beautiful ladies had to have a casual disdain for the lesser mortals with whom they very condescendingly interacted. She was expected to pull out a small mirror from the Gucci handbag and touch up her eyeliner or lipstick. She had to have an air of displeasure, cursing the solitary bead of perspiration that dared to emerge whenever she left the confines of the Air Conditioned milieu. She had to feign irritation at the constant attention she drew from lecherous eyes, on which she actually thrived.She was not expected to eat street food, that spelt nemesis for her porcelain complexion. She had to sport a stressed look. She was never supposed to laugh loudly or hysterically. Her amusement had to be restricted to a cosmetic smile that had a very limited frequency. . How could she ever be the cheerful, lively, funfilled damsel with a great sense of humor, who laughed animatedly and uncontrollably on discovering comedy in the mundane ?.
If she did, these attributes were to be to closeted. Revealed only in the tight inner circle. Beauty was never supposed to be trivialized to a 'girl next door' commodity with easy accessibility. Soniya broke these conceptions. On an occasion,she climbed into a crane-lift in the dead of the night along with her room-mate, to lend a hand to painting an overhead bridge. These impromptu acts could never be the attributes of a prototype, mannequinesque beauty. Her beauty was augmented by spontaneity, ease, back slapping camaraderie, compassion, a very sharp intellect, an unending curiosity to learn anything from Vedanta to Quantum Physics to cosmology. She simultaneously exuded elegance, poise and ease that made everyone very comfortable. Her looks, her personna were striking but never served as uncomfortable struts that distanced. She had an approachability, an affability, that endeared. Physical beauty that's skin deep is transient, and fades with time. Beauty of the soul, fragrance of being a good human being, warmth of the heart are far more enduring and the most potent cosmetics. She has her beautiful head firmly fixed on her shoulders. There isn't a trace of conceit in her demeanor. She is not a bit self-conscious and never makes others conscious of her virtues. My impression and conception of a beautiful woman was entirely misplaced or so it seemed. The young girl that I had known , probably was kissed by the frog of destiny to transform into a Princess. She certainly is Destiny's own child. It looks all set to be the wedding of the season. Whilst all are working ceaselessly and tirelessly, I'm busy searching for traces of royalty in myself to justify being the parent of this Princess. God bless the Royal Couple.
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