Beauty And Production :: Part 1
"beauty lies in the eyes of beholder"

Louriyam Bebica *

One common thing that we speak/recite among ourselves is "beauty lies in the eyes of beholder". It is a well said sentence in our society too. It means the value of beauty depends on the person who is looking/interpreting the 'object'. So the meaning of beauty is entirely an abstract one. To prove this, We often encountered local story where a husband claimed that his wife is the most beautiful lady in this world.

Interviewer : Sir, who is the most beautiful lady in this world?
Man : My wife with no doubt.
Interviewer : Why ? Is it because she has the most wonderful eyes/nose/lips? Man : No.
Interviewer: Then ?
Man : because she is my wife.

Here the beauty of that lady was entirely judged by his 'feeling' (which is an abstract notation). It was his love for her that decides the beauty. If I have to see this from the point of a master 'LOVER' then it sounds so sweet. But if I have to judge it from the 'reality of world ' then I cannot accept it fully. Because beauty is the reflection of this concrete world. We cannot deny its relationship with this concrete world. If I have to term them, I will say we need proportion, balance and harmony to judge the 'beauty'.

For instance, a lady who has the most beautiful eyes, nose but her lips are too lower from nose and too near to the chin that it almost looks like lips-comes chin. How will you judge her? Is she beautiful? No . She is not because one part of her body is not in proportion, balance and harmony with the rest of the parts.

Or let's take another example, have we ever thought why the collar of our shirt are on proportion? Why is one side not longer than the other? Because we have a systematic 'order' that decides the beauty. According to different society, we might have different 'size' to decide beauty as in our community we consider small nose and small eyes still beautiful where as those mayang might have different size for that. However in every society, these proportion, balance and harmony remain the same features to decide BEAUTY.

But the sense of beauty is so narrowed down that it is confined to our body only. If we bought a shirt that doesnot fit us, we cannot wait for a night to exchange it. But we prefer to remain ignorant even after knowing this system of society is too tight to fit on us. If our nose gets longer than it ought to be, we will meet every possible doctors in this world for its treatment. However no one try to see the unproportional, imbalance and disharmony in the society. It is growing like a cancer in the nose that won't stop growing.

Can you imagine a man with a nose that is longer that his hand? It will look so horrible right? We will pity and think if we can be of any help. Because his imbalance was destroying his beauty. Then why not in our society? Why aren't we searching for a treatment to treat his cancer. His cancer is growing day by day. The part of his body where rich lives are growing in every second , whereas the vein where poor lives is all suck up leaving them dry and skinny. If we didn't see a doctor soon , this cancer will destroy his beauty.

As Romanticism people said that there can't be beauty in the society without proportion , balance and harmony.

Socrates once said " the useful in life is the beautiful". What is then beautiful in life? A life is full of life when all parts are of the form in perfect harmony - we state as health. Loss of harmony leads to disease which is a threat to a life. While health is something beautiful, illness is not. God's 'nature' is in perfect harmony - the trees, the birds, the fishes…grows spontaneously ,even the tiniest creature ant gets enough food and decent shelter.

But our organization called 'society' (Waste Land) made by man - youth grows pale, old died unhappy, some sleep under golden palace, some sleep on the street under the sky, some toils 24/7, some sit doing nothing but they get better food to eat.

Those big TUMMY claimed that we are developing (a sign of beauty to them). They judged the beauty only through buildings . They didn't see those homeless people who are sleeping under those constructions. In their snap of 'beauty', the building is what they count.

One evening two men were passing through a big fly-over that was almost completing in construction. When that big TUMMY fellow who was inside his car saw the concrete construction, he smiled and muttered to himself - "wow its beautiful", looking up widely at the site. Their eyes normally don't see what's there/going on at the ground .

And the other SKINNY fellow who was walking by the side saw those poor, starving and homeless people under the fly flower. His eyes couldn't reach the point where that big TUMMY's eyes fell in love. His view was just narrowed to those needy people only.

When both of them reached home, their story was different. Big TUMMY wanted to go again with his wife to enjoy the beauty where as the SKINNY fellow wants his wife to stay away from it because he doesn't want his wife to get hurt the way he is.

That's why I said beauty cannot lie only in the eyes of beholder. The reality of world's 'order' also needed to judge it. How can we keep on accepting on what those big TUMMY said ? How can we agree that its beautiful only because they said so, despite knowing the fact there is no harmony. How can we allow only their eyes to judge the beauty?

In this position of illness, how can we expect peace or happiness from Mr. Society. Whether you like it or not, he is ours. He is here because we are here and vice versa. The sooner we see the doctor, the better it will be for both him and us.

To be continued...