Aping the West

Aping the West

Indians have started aping the west completely and the western influences can be clearly seen in our behaviour, culture, attire and even language. Though to say, we are an independent nation but instead of promoting our culture, we are aping the west and one would feel that we are still under a foreign rule.

Aping the West

Coming to the point, majority of Indians have turned out to be figure conscious and it is mainly the female gender which gossips about their vital statistics more than their counterparts. This shows that in the recent few years the western culture has indeed slowly influenced the minds of the Indians through various factors, one being the beauty pageants which have played a major part in revolutionizing the mentality of the Indian society. The female centric ads are another major reason for the obsession to look good. The ads regarding the fairness creams have poisoned the minds of the people to such an extent that they have started imagining cosmetics to be a miraculous solution which would even turn a 'monkey into a prince or princess'. The film industry would be the third factor for this figure consciousness as mostly all the films focus on the female anatomy and the muscular look among the males. All these factors have obviously lead to the mushrooming of more and more gymnasiums and beauty clinics. Thus, external beauty has gained such prominence in our lives that mostly all men wish to be as perfect as the Greek Gods and all female wish that they were heroines with envious vital statistics even to the point of being anorexic. Lastly, I would only say that 'External beauty withers with time and internal beauty opens the doors to heaven'.

-Arvind Rau