Two years back in the same month of May, I caught up with Archita and Amit in Mumbai to eat some street food and check on Archita’s fracture ! While eating the yum Bhel and Pani puri Amit started to tease Archita about not eating the fried stuff. She has worked so hard to get in shape … So rightfully she was being careful. For some strange reason sitting there, I got this image of a person balancing herself on a scale and made me wonder how women are perpetually on scales…
We worry about the weight gain, we rejoice on weight loss, we measure ourselves all the time. Nose too long, ears too big, eyes slanting the wrong way, eyes too small or too big, hair longer or shorter, scales everywhere. Everytime you get onto a scale, think of walking on them for the entire day, tough, right ? But then that’s what you are doing every single minute – standing on or beside a scale, measuring yourself, critiquing yourself, comparing yourself !!!
Hey, just imagine living a few hours without measuring, critiquing or comparing … its such a huge relief. Each of us is born perfect, are perfect just the way we are. Yes, we need to exercise, we need to eat sensibly and we need to do all these things to remain fit – not thin, not “like” someone else.
Can the modelling/fashion community also do its bit by refusing to remain anorexic, by refusing to eat just a spinach leaf to stay a certain size ! Its actually cruel to oneself. I am no proponent of the “happy” oversized women either. Obesity is as much a problem as anorexia is – the truly happy is one who is just fit. Both are extremes and extremism in anything doesn’t work. Atleast can the Indian designers start using normal women to model their saris ?
This craze for being thin and a negative body image is just unnerving … I go for a walk everyday with Mom in the morning within our condo complex and there are several girls who are so terribly thin that I get scared. I feel like stopping them and asking if they are probably living alone and need some home cooked food or any other help. On the other extreme, there are small children that are obese and their T.Shirts would fit me – again, very worrying. I find the maids the fittest. They walk everywhere, and some of them use a cycle. They wear saris mostly and are generally fit, neither overweight, nor thin. The logic seems to be to eat less and just keep moving and exercising.
I am not ever going to be thin but am very fit and in the process I sometimes lose weight and sometimes gain weight. I am menopausal, so I understand my body is changing and for a few years I may feel bloated, heavy, etc etc. I just continue to exercise everyday and eat healthy, binge once in a while and generally be happy. Yes, I have my low days when I start measuring, critiquing and comparing – but I just snap out of it rather quickly. I refuse to walk on scales ….
This is for all my sisters, daughters, mothers, girlfriends out there – kick the scale aside, start eating well and exercising everyday and just live well. Help young women and little girls to understand the value of being a woman and have a positive body image, and not worry about being “thin”. Life is for living not measuring, critiquing and comparing ourselves !!
On that note – I am getting myself a slice of the Mango cake that I ordered for Krishnan’s birthday 🙂
Sharing this with my friends Bindu. Many of my friends need to read this.
Sure Sindhu.
Bindu, your posts are awesome! I literally stumbled upon your blog searching for something about Hitachi on google! I guess there is a reason for that too 🙂 Keep the writing coming. Love the saree collection.