Only that glitters is Gold

There was a recent furore over some catwallk models who were refused to let their wardrobe malfunction because they were so thin that organisers feared the audience might mistake them for organic clothes hangers. According to these organisers something was drastically wrong as the average fashion model today weighs no more than a dictionary. Infact today most dictionaries are being rewritten to define "Fashion model - N,irr,sep V - The shortest distance between 2 points". Most of the models when they heard the news went straightaway to the windows of their Paris , Milan penthouses to jump to their deaths. But the evening breeze blew them away gently till they ended up landing softly in Jungles of the Congo Valley, where they blended in smoothly with the praying mantis colonies. The brouhaha was because the organisers felt these thin models served as bad role models to the current teenage generation. Indeed this caused me great concern , e.g Teenagers having role models !!!. In my time teenagers did not have any role models. We barely had enough time to show off our knowledge at clandestine booze parties

Teen 1 = "Dude just add some cigarette ash to make your beer smooth"

Dude in question (who similar to Teen 1had no idea what exactly a smooth beer is) - "Cool man, ash with slight chilli sauce to make it acid smooth"

Teen 1 = "Rocking dude "

.......and so went on the endless meets with teen 1 and dude adding stuff like Cigarette ash, chilli sauce, Dabur Chyawanprash, Iodex etc to their beer to make it like funky smooth. A time came when we had to stir our beer with mechanised sailing oars to mix in the cool stuff. We had no time for role models. We were too busy with our own theories and experiments.

e.g. Theory : Anita Chopra has the hots for Dude 1.
Experiment : Dude 1 to ask her out by wolf whistling her down college corridors singing hindi songs with the subtle elegance of a 1980s Jeetendra movie.
Result : Rakhee on the wrist.
Conclusion : Anita Chopra is a lesbian.

But apparently things have changed and nowadays teens do have role models like Britney Spears, Liz Jagger and other models whose names I was too lazy too google for. I was wondering in my own naive non teen way, in what way exactly do these catwalkers serve as models. These guys barely know how to choose a pair of trousers. If you ever watch them , you see them walking with that rather silly stern expression. I mean what is with the stern expression. Here you are wearing Jute sacks that seem to be the secret love child of a umbrella and a tuxedo and you are looking on with the stern expression as though you are on your way to a critical cardiac bypass operation. Infact these models should be wearing an expression that suggests "Hey look at me, am a functioning adult even though a few chromosomes are missing". But despite the missing chromosome, apparently they do serve as idols for the teens.

So we have girls wanting to be Barbies and guys wanting to be Arnold Schwarzenneger (but with a simple surname). Such unrealistic ideals of human perfection no matter how superficial appeal more to people than your personality. Your success is thought to be a direct muliple of your appearances.

So all encompassing is the glamour that appearances are more than skin deep. Society today has such misplaced ideas of beauty. If you are fat, short, ugly, dark etc (I am not necessarily talking about my friend Rajit here), then you are deemed to be the human equivalent of Bangladesh. It does not matter that you might be talented, Intelligent, artistic etc because beauty is only skin deep. It is better off looking like a Hrithik Roshan and having the intelligence of Bangaru Laxman than having the intelligent persona of a V Anand or the talent of a A R Rehman. Everybody wants to be a hero but none ... an actor. So there is no dearth of customers for numerous products, services, establishments etc who promise to make you slimmer, fairer, restore hair, improve your bustline, prettier etc .

So we have fashion models whose only talent is having the body fat content of a flower pot and wearing lampshades upside down but still manage to inspire the teenage generation. whereas a Satyendra Dubey or a Manjunath last in public memory shorter than a Adnan Sami's gym session. I wonder who needs to be banned more.