In the good old days few people had cameras, they had to be loaded with film and each roll contained 33 shots. You did not waste the shots and carefully chose the pictures. Then there was no instant gratification, you could not see the results until you developed it and only place you could display them is on your family album. Only film stars, celebrities and professional models featured on the pages of glossies and you believed that they had what no one else had. Then came the internet followed by social media like Facebook. Now everyone has a digital camera on their phone. Knowledge of make up and trendy clothes is available online. Experimenting with camera angles no longer involves developing pictures but is instantly there on the screen of your mobile to review. Then what is the use of great pictures unless people can see them? For that everyone has a personal wall on which they can post glamourous pictures of themselves which people can appreciate. An exercise of self gratification. But what is wrong with that? Actually nothing! Self gratification is has been a past time for humans since time immemorial.

The recent comments by the Chief Minister of Tripura, Biplab Deb, regarding Diana Hayden not representing Indian Beauty made me think “‘he suffers from ‘foot and mouth’ disease”. If you wish to compete in any international event, you have to play by the rules. Whether it’s a beauty pageant or sports. There are some criteria for beauty which the contestants have to fulfill. The judges are given a checklist on which they tick and based on that the winner is chosen. I have read that all you require for participating in a beauty pageant is height. The rest can be manufactured! The perfect smile, the smooth complexion, the svelte figure and so on. In other words beauty is universal and ugliness only for the ignorant.