Real Beauty... what it means to be really beautiful

Real Beauty... what does this term mean to me? well, it might seem cliched but for me real beauty is skin deep. It is more deep than how fair your complexion is or how sharp your features are! As i said before it might be cliched but isn't it true? agreed the way you look alters people's perception. like they say first impression is pretty important but is, i.e. the first impression, the last? I certainly don't think so... how many times, have you seen a beautiful woman and when she starts talking, you can do nothing but cringe?! how many times have you swooned over a handsome hunk only to think later, 'How dumb is he?!' 'n' number of times, right?! me too! after interacting with many such beautiful faces i have realized that beauty is indeed skin deep. what you are inside should be much more beautiful than what you are outside. 

For me...
that mother is beautiful who forgoes her share of food so that her husband and kids have their full... that sister is beautiful who saves up her six months of salary so that she can give the prefect rakhi present to her younger brother... that daughter-in-law is beautiful who even after completing an MBA leaves her high-flying career to be with her aging in-laws... The daughter who forgets her love to see a smile on her parents' face... the wife who waits up for her husband so that they can have at least one hot meal together.

These might not be life-changing issues but it is these small considerations, this selfless love that makes one beautiful from inside and outside.

And it's not only women who have real beauty, it's the men too... that son who works double shifts so that he can buy a house for his parents... that father who gives up his share of the luxuries of life so that his children can have them...That brother who spends all his money shopping for his little sister on his first out-of-India trip... that husband who after completing a 14 hour shift comes home and helps his wife in making dinner...
Now isn't that beautiful? I think so...

and what about that guy who marries a girl even after his parents discourage him because she is not getting enough dowry? that child who shares half her lunch with the street urchin? that corporate guru who leaves his high-paying job to work at the grass root level in the villages? that lady who gives her new sari to the maid because her daughter is getting married and she can't afford to buy one? that teenager who takes out time every day and sits for an hour with his aging grandparents? that woman who saves a young girl from being eve-teased in a crowded bus...

Aren't all these people much more beautiful than our regular beauty pageant winners? Aren't these people who might not have outward beauty more beautiful than the so-called supermodels? is the fact that how you look, how fair is your skin tone, do you have any blemish... the only benchmark for beauty? and if it is then how shallow are we?!

In today's day and age, it is pretty easy to alter the way you look from outside but the need of the hour is to change the way you are from inside... you can remove the blemishes from your face,but what you need is to erase the blemishes from your heart!

it's time to be really beautiful... it's time to let go of prejudices and petty issues... it's time to be a little less selfish and little more selfless... a time to stop thinking of me but concentrating on we... it's time to rise above it all and if you manage to do that you indeed would posses real beauty of heart and of character.