Let us have a look on the ensuing changes.

First and foremost, it is not difficult for any one of us to be attractive now a days, albeit, we invest more in terms of time and money to look good. All it takes is to walk into a shop and everything is available at the point of a finger.

Call it contrived or enthused, majority of us today can comfortably carry oursleves in a tight shirt or a tight jeans. We now can buy and wear the dresses which Preity Zinta or Angelina Jolie wears in their latest blockbusters.

For many of us, knitting or sitting in front of the yongham is old-fashioned and living in the past. With increasing financial independence and spending power, come any occasions, we can buy a present for any person or persons we value.

Likewise, we have the courage to make initatives to persons (opposite sex or the same) whom we think we like, without having to go through the pangs and agony of being an outcaste or to wait for the other person to make the first move. Yes, we love to make/have our choices, we are the children of change.

Modern technology has reduced our labour on household chores, (resposibilities we endure), giving us ample leisure. Moreover, many of us have ceased bathing at the local ponds/streams or river, and socialisation has taken a different form.

We would rather love to sit at home and read a novel/book, depending on our age and choice of authors. Beauty and lifestyle magazines such as Cosmopolitan, Gladrags and Femina et al. are a growing girl's handy companion and we solemly follow the tips and advises given there.

Over and above, many of us being far away from home, can date any guy we like and spend as many hours with them without the fear of parental curfew or restrictions. Physical mobility, too, is no longer restricted .

I can travel around the world on my own and still would not get lost (well, as long as I have the money!).We experiment with our hairs, with our looks and with our lives, sometimes with our careers, too.

Gone are the days when 'teaching' or 'medicine' was a 'circled' profession for a girl. Our parents and family now have learnt to accept the change, slowly but surely.

'Philosophy of beauty is a theory of values' George Santayana once said. 'Criticism' is another word used for appreciation of beauty - a word which has been adopted since centuries, in relation with admiration for works of art.

How, then has our beauty been perceived upon or criticised by our male counterparts, inside our own state and outside? If not always, female beauty has been mystified and vilified for centuries: 'It's superficial', 'it's dangerous', 'it's destructive', 'it's deadly', etc..

Women continue to be butchered and robbed of their rights around the world just for being beautiful. We do not have to look far for answers.

Want it or not, there is an increasing western influence looming around and has invaded our own living rooms: movies, dresses, foods, and the lifestyles we adopt to some extent.

Of course, we are Manipuris at heart and deeply rooted. But the influences seem inevitable as the onward march of globalization (consumerism inherent) reaches every nook and corner of the world.

Read Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV | Part V | Part VI | Part VII |