The Broken Leg Story

 Part 1

What is the purpose of a stair handrail? It is to assist in safely navigating through the stairs. But it’s no surprise that humans pick-out redundancy in things faster than their inherent flaws. Apparently, stairs don’t like it and they repay in kind. I have had my lessons. Perhaps I should learn to hold my plans loosely and the handrail, tightly, because missing even a couple of steps equals a ligament tear and a hairline fracture in your right foot. Did you read broken leg? That’s technically called click bait. But you hear it from the horse’s mouth that exaggeration runs in our veins. If I had a broken leg for real, heading would go like this- The Case of an Amputated Leg. Never mind. Cut to the story, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. It wasn’t my first ever slip on a staircase. I have had a history of routine falls but never silly enough as the one that got me limping for a month now. As I fell, my friends in specs checked me, first with their words, then with laughter and finally with camera as I gloriously sat cross legged on the landing. Yet, it’s better to be a butt of jokes than be patient of sorts. My dad blames my haste, mom rants about my penguin walk and for brothers, it’s my faulty brain cells. Ask me, it’s the sandal that caused the scandal. Sandal becomes scandal if you force that extra ‘c’ of chicness. Suffer, you must. 

Note: I can still do a leg sweep and also pirouette like a ballerina. 

Pout. Camera. Filter.

 #theRealME

These are the times when your face seeks validation from distorted photos of front camera. It’s hard to accept those dark heads or pimple scars; the darker tone cries for a whitewash and that extra fat under the chin needs chiseling. Life becomes seemingly easy. Thanks to two hundred filters, your camera successfully belies you. Some would say, photo hi toh hai, ispar bhi kya panchayat! To err is human and missing woods for the trees is one. It’s no wonder that as much as Fair & Lovely has faced criticism, just as much is our Gen Z welcoming plastic culture, fanning narrow beauty standards in form of perfect jawline, nail-sharp nose, Barbie skin and so on. Botox treatments, face surgeries are ugly realities rallied vehemently by over-worshipped celebrities whom you see undergoing treatments for wrinkles in their 20s itself. And what for…VALIDATION! Appreciation then becomes the actual currency. But you know what, some would again say, my life, my choice. Yeah right, you have every right to be fake, artificial and preach about body positivity, poison vulnerable teenagers while doing all shit to just validate yourself. What hypocrisy! Though bit off-track, but Social Media is the hidden elephant in the room which thrives on this validation business technique. When something is free, we are the Products. It’s a zoo and we are the donkeys, the compulsive donkeys!!

PS: We are in the age where toxic celebs are giving cosmetic couple goals, plastic influencers are providing skin care tips, where hyper consumerism is glorified, emotions are recorded not felt, fakeness is mistaken for originality, charity is made for camera and nothing but validation drives the actions. It's a jungle. And we are sophisticated animals, but animals indeed!