Ageing gracefully

In this era, when almost everything is possible, we are no stranger to the 'ant- ageing' creams and the pretty women in the advertisements who look like they've been frozen in time.. 

How many of us are ready to let life do what it has to without trying to stop the natural process? 

Everyone wants to stay youthful and young and dupe the world with their "young and carefree" attitude.. 

I've seen my great-grandmother, grandmother and mother and their versions of a make-up kit.. 

My great-grandmum's make-up wooden box consisted of a snuff pillow ( i really dunno why and my grandma tells me it was to make sure the box smells good!.. that's a weird theory ), Kaajal ( which used to come in steel small tins! ) and a thin silver needle kinda object ( she used to keep a long bindi made out of kumkum mixed in water with the help of the stick ) ... Well this was her "make-up" kit when she was in her nineties! In her youth, she and her friends were most fascinated by the colorful nylon ribbons and glass bangles! (that's it?!!) and of course the flowers!.. She was one beautiful woman with grey eyes, and i just can't imagine her having thick black hair ( all through my life, i've seen her with long silvery white hair! ) and inspite of her wrinkles caused over time, she was a very beautiful woman.

Moving on to my grandmum, her make-up box contains fair and lovely cream (ah the obsession my fair skin! sadly she din't get the 'fair' gene from my great grandmother ), vaseline for her heels, Red sticker bindis and the kaajal dabba. Even in her late seventies now, she has waist length hair ( thanks to all the oiling with weird smelling herbs and shikhakai in her youth! man! I envy the length of her hair ) and her dark olive coloured skin (which has been faithful to the mysore sandal soap) has started to look like old tree bark :( ( man! I don;t want her to grow old! ) and inspite of me buying her the moisturizing lotions and creams, she still prefers to add a small spoon of ghee to the last mug of water during the bath and says that's all the body needs and not your lotion potions! :P 

Don't even get me started on my mum's make-up kit ( if i can call it a kit! )... From the days of those red and pink nailpolishes ( i think they were called eyetex or something ) to the present day creams, my mum has literally experimented with all products in the market! Being a dancer, at a young age, she got fascinated with make-up and 'beautifying' herself.. from the lacto calamine and ponds powder days to the present olay and revlon compacts, her dresser is like a treasure chest to any make-up obsessed girl! ( thank god me and my sister haven't inherited my mum's make-up obsession ) Even though we tell her you don't need any of those anti-ageing things and you look pretty the way you are, she doesn't listen to us :| ( she doesn't even look like a mother of 2 daughters in their 20s! )...

When we have hundreds of cosmetic surgeons and loads of celebrities getting their assets 'modified' , millions of creams, lotions and what not to keep us youthful, I really dunno how many of us are actually ready to just let nature work on us as we age... 

It is indeed a pain when we see a pimple in the morning when you have something special, that gloss which just enhances your pout, the under eye creams to hide the previous night's work pressure...  

The make-up industry is more of a boon than a bane ( atleast according to me! ).. but come on don;t look like pan cakes at the end of the day, give your skin a li'l breathing space! :) 

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P.S : If you're wondering what my make-up pouch consists of, its a kaajal, lacto calamine, lip balm and a lip gloss! :P