My tryst with my looks

A posh palour. I tiptoed into it precariously. The girls whisked around and the men flexed their muscles, for once I thought I have entered the ramp of an ongoing fashion week.

‘Eye…eyebrows’, I said softly.

‘Only threading?’ Loud and hard.

‘Yes’

‘Call Sangeeta, she has appointments lined up…but she can take this, this client has ONLY eyebrows.’

I felt apologetic for wasting their time.

‘Hello Madam, what can I get you? Tea, Coffee, water?’ Sangeeta said with a smile

‘Eyebrows’, I said

I was pushed back and the pulling started. Doesn’t pain anymore as it’s been 25 years, the first time I had the courage to get only one a day, only because my friends thought I looked like that , ‘Yakku’ fellow in the long forgotten serial, ‘Chandrakanta’

‘Madam, your feet need a pedicure, so rough your feet look’.

My feet felt apologetic.

‘Ok you finish this then I will get the pedicure done.’

At the pedicure station.

‘Madam your hands really need a manicure, saath saath ho jayega…’

My feet looking like Cinderella, I jumped up to go to the counter.

My eyebrow girl came up, ‘Ma’am, I have finished with this client, your face looks so bad, so many open pores and black heads…get our gold facial.’

I thought I would end up paying in gold coins, but vanity thy name is woman.

The gold facial done, I looked pretty much the same. The Aishwarya I expected to see in the mirror didn’t come up!

I headed towards the counter when the hair stylist accosted me and commented how bad my hair looked and the streaks of white, which I always found dignified, were totally written off.

Hair done, colour done.  Now my looks should satisfy the palour girls. They did. Phew!

I had to get to the counter now.

Paid almost my half months salary, I walked out. Over lunch, my friends discovered in the bill that I had paid for the upper lip and not got it done.

Loosing 100 bucks was better than your face, hair, feet, hands being judged so harshly, so I let it go.  On insistence of my buddies said, no harm in getting it done.

So I walked in again. A totally new girl came, ‘Ma’am, your eyebrows are done so badly, the colour in the hair doesn’t suit your skin, the nail paint is bad quality…where did you get it all this done?

I rested my case.