Thursday, July 31, 2008
Being Fat!!
Neha is a most gorgeous girl I ever seen, I thought, being a little jealous. I mean look at her. Her elegance has enchanted every onlooker in this party, it's like she has the power of tantalizing everyone. Their she is wearing a spaghetti strap dress stitched to perfection that brilliantly fits her hourglass figure, it flatters her curves even more and makes her look like ravishing diva. She manages to be in the lime light due to her well proportioned body.
Huhhhh!!! Its all about the body, isn’t it? I thought as I saw Neha and my few others friends making their way towards me. How I wish I possessed a figure as great as hers, guess some girls have all the luck. Its not only Neha who always gets noticed, it's the same with all my friends, accept me. As Neha came closer she said ‘hey fatty’ in a sarcastic tone and started chatting with her girlfriends, whereas I sat there cursing my self, shrinking in the appearance of my perfect friends. Her acrimonious remark made me feel worst about myself. I had always felt intimidated around them, less confident and at times odd. Maybe it's because I am not like them, for I know they make fun of my huge hips and bulky body behind my back.
This is the story of a depressed teenage girl who is angry with herself. Unhappy with her own body. She wishes she could have a perfect figure like her friends that would draw people’s attention towards her.
Another girl Ramsha was telling her friend how she got dumped by her boyfriend: previously Hassan used to pay so much attention towards me and now all of a sudden he has changed. We have been going out for more than a year and yesterday he just ditched me to go out with another girl in my college. Hassan said that I resembled a fat potato and no one would like to date someone like me. I am devastated I so envy Muniba’s looks (Hassan’s new girlfriend). I have heard people saying that she eats like a cow but still manages to look so skinny. But now I’ve made up my mind, I am going to do anything and everything to get slim, I would go on a strict diet to macerate my body. Even if I have to starve myself, I will!
I am sure there are many teenaged girls who would relate to the stories of these two girls. Look around you and you will find fine examples of such people. Maybe it's your friend who keeps obsessing over her weight or maybe you yourself have a complex of this sort. In today’s world it has almost become a mind set of youngsters that if they want to be accepted everywhere they ‘have’ to appear slim. To accomplish this silly target they take a nonsensical approach towards it. Sometimes they go on useless crash diets, starve themselves or take supplements which are not only harmful for there bodies but are also of no use.
What we fail to understand is that it's not our outer appearance that makes us stand out from the crowd, its our personality, the way we are with people and our urbane manners. It's better to feel elated for what we have, than to brag and boast about things we don’t. Yearning to be like someone won’t make you like them. Transience of beauty is a recognized fact, it will not stay with you forever but what will stay is your true inner personality that would enrapture everyone. Appearance does matter to an extent but it should not be forgotten that what makes people important is their uniqueness. I think its totally wrong to whine about ones own body and then go through the trouble of starving themselves just to impress and be excepted in a certain group.
C’mon we all are different individuals and should be accepted for who we are, not how we look, if you are not getting to hangout with your so-called friends and are being ignored just because you are fat, then do hell with them. They are not worthy of being with you. Cheers!
Huhhhh!!! Its all about the body, isn’t it? I thought as I saw Neha and my few others friends making their way towards me. How I wish I possessed a figure as great as hers, guess some girls have all the luck. Its not only Neha who always gets noticed, it's the same with all my friends, accept me. As Neha came closer she said ‘hey fatty’ in a sarcastic tone and started chatting with her girlfriends, whereas I sat there cursing my self, shrinking in the appearance of my perfect friends. Her acrimonious remark made me feel worst about myself. I had always felt intimidated around them, less confident and at times odd. Maybe it's because I am not like them, for I know they make fun of my huge hips and bulky body behind my back.
This is the story of a depressed teenage girl who is angry with herself. Unhappy with her own body. She wishes she could have a perfect figure like her friends that would draw people’s attention towards her.
Another girl Ramsha was telling her friend how she got dumped by her boyfriend: previously Hassan used to pay so much attention towards me and now all of a sudden he has changed. We have been going out for more than a year and yesterday he just ditched me to go out with another girl in my college. Hassan said that I resembled a fat potato and no one would like to date someone like me. I am devastated I so envy Muniba’s looks (Hassan’s new girlfriend). I have heard people saying that she eats like a cow but still manages to look so skinny. But now I’ve made up my mind, I am going to do anything and everything to get slim, I would go on a strict diet to macerate my body. Even if I have to starve myself, I will!
I am sure there are many teenaged girls who would relate to the stories of these two girls. Look around you and you will find fine examples of such people. Maybe it's your friend who keeps obsessing over her weight or maybe you yourself have a complex of this sort. In today’s world it has almost become a mind set of youngsters that if they want to be accepted everywhere they ‘have’ to appear slim. To accomplish this silly target they take a nonsensical approach towards it. Sometimes they go on useless crash diets, starve themselves or take supplements which are not only harmful for there bodies but are also of no use.
What we fail to understand is that it's not our outer appearance that makes us stand out from the crowd, its our personality, the way we are with people and our urbane manners. It's better to feel elated for what we have, than to brag and boast about things we don’t. Yearning to be like someone won’t make you like them. Transience of beauty is a recognized fact, it will not stay with you forever but what will stay is your true inner personality that would enrapture everyone. Appearance does matter to an extent but it should not be forgotten that what makes people important is their uniqueness. I think its totally wrong to whine about ones own body and then go through the trouble of starving themselves just to impress and be excepted in a certain group.
C’mon we all are different individuals and should be accepted for who we are, not how we look, if you are not getting to hangout with your so-called friends and are being ignored just because you are fat, then do hell with them. They are not worthy of being with you. Cheers!
A book review: 'Girls of Riyadh'
REVIEW: 'THE GIRLS OF RIYADH'
RAJAA ALSANEA
The book 'Girls of Riyadh' has been innovatively written by a 25 year old girl, Rajaa Alsanea. The book revolves around a clique of four best friends who reside in Riyadh. These girls who have all the characteristics of an epicurean belong to the 'velvet class' of the city and enjoy the material luxuries that they can easily afford like living in palatial houses, wearing branded clothes and traveling to exotic locales but the book basically reveals their convoluted love life. It also tells about the impediments they face in their relationships, mostly caused by the conservative and critical thinking of their society. The book embodies the thoughts, ideas and desires of women behind the veils. It condemns the double standards and gender disparity that dominates the Saudi society.
This story is narrated by an unidentified writer who knows the life of these four girls and writes about them weekly in the form of emails that are sent out to all the users of the internet in Saudi Arabia. Every week the anonymous writer who is determined not to disclose her identity, apprises the readers about the kind of mixed response that she receives, replies to them and continues with the tale of the four girls who exemplify the adversities faced by Saudi women, most of whom find themselves constricted in shackles. The author uses inspiring yet pertinent quotes from playwrights, famous authors and singers in the beginning of most emails which whets the readers' appetite to read further.
The protagonists of the book are very realistic. Sadeem is a petite girl who is around 20 years old and is usually tangled in topsy-turvy situations. She is the one who suffers many heartbreaks and her quest for finding herself a suitable match throughout the book is quiet interesting. Lamees possess a little more freedom than her other peeps due to her influential and knowledgeable parents. She is career oriented and seldom faces hardships. From all the girls Lamees was the one I found the least interesting because in her life the quantity of drama that prevails is comparatively less than the one that can be found in oodles in her friends' stories. Gamrah is someone who dithers in almost every phase of her life, be it in marriage, raising a child or living with her parents as a divorcee, she is constantly in fear of being ostracized. The most delightful character for me was Michelle who is very different from her friends in every way. This liberal, half-American girl compromises on nothing, she never settles for anything less than perfect. She is much more independent than her friends who she thinks are responsible for their own bad state of affairs. Michelle has a different outlook on everything and more than often her perceptions and view points clash with her friends'.
Like many other reviewers of the book, I didn't find it amazingly revelatory, for the sole reason that the books depicts the emotions of young girls who have the same feelings, urges and desires like any other young girl of their age around the world. They fall in love, they do sneaky things, they get betrayed, they suffer heartbreaks, they despise the system and they have a strong urge to retaliate, it's all the same. The only difference is that in this book the girls do all this in a different society. The book has been banned in Saudi Arabia for its explicit albeit true details of the lives of the Saudi women. If this review triggers your curiosity and interest and you are looking for a light read then get a hold of it and read to find out what route the lives of these four girls take. The cover of the book would be compelling enough for most people to entice them into reading it, but as they say: 'Don't judge a book by it's cover' so for those who are seeking for more deeper information and a serious read about Saudi Arabia, I reckon that you have better options to choose from.
RAJAA ALSANEA
The book 'Girls of Riyadh' has been innovatively written by a 25 year old girl, Rajaa Alsanea. The book revolves around a clique of four best friends who reside in Riyadh. These girls who have all the characteristics of an epicurean belong to the 'velvet class' of the city and enjoy the material luxuries that they can easily afford like living in palatial houses, wearing branded clothes and traveling to exotic locales but the book basically reveals their convoluted love life. It also tells about the impediments they face in their relationships, mostly caused by the conservative and critical thinking of their society. The book embodies the thoughts, ideas and desires of women behind the veils. It condemns the double standards and gender disparity that dominates the Saudi society.
This story is narrated by an unidentified writer who knows the life of these four girls and writes about them weekly in the form of emails that are sent out to all the users of the internet in Saudi Arabia. Every week the anonymous writer who is determined not to disclose her identity, apprises the readers about the kind of mixed response that she receives, replies to them and continues with the tale of the four girls who exemplify the adversities faced by Saudi women, most of whom find themselves constricted in shackles. The author uses inspiring yet pertinent quotes from playwrights, famous authors and singers in the beginning of most emails which whets the readers' appetite to read further.
The protagonists of the book are very realistic. Sadeem is a petite girl who is around 20 years old and is usually tangled in topsy-turvy situations. She is the one who suffers many heartbreaks and her quest for finding herself a suitable match throughout the book is quiet interesting. Lamees possess a little more freedom than her other peeps due to her influential and knowledgeable parents. She is career oriented and seldom faces hardships. From all the girls Lamees was the one I found the least interesting because in her life the quantity of drama that prevails is comparatively less than the one that can be found in oodles in her friends' stories. Gamrah is someone who dithers in almost every phase of her life, be it in marriage, raising a child or living with her parents as a divorcee, she is constantly in fear of being ostracized. The most delightful character for me was Michelle who is very different from her friends in every way. This liberal, half-American girl compromises on nothing, she never settles for anything less than perfect. She is much more independent than her friends who she thinks are responsible for their own bad state of affairs. Michelle has a different outlook on everything and more than often her perceptions and view points clash with her friends'.
Like many other reviewers of the book, I didn't find it amazingly revelatory, for the sole reason that the books depicts the emotions of young girls who have the same feelings, urges and desires like any other young girl of their age around the world. They fall in love, they do sneaky things, they get betrayed, they suffer heartbreaks, they despise the system and they have a strong urge to retaliate, it's all the same. The only difference is that in this book the girls do all this in a different society. The book has been banned in Saudi Arabia for its explicit albeit true details of the lives of the Saudi women. If this review triggers your curiosity and interest and you are looking for a light read then get a hold of it and read to find out what route the lives of these four girls take. The cover of the book would be compelling enough for most people to entice them into reading it, but as they say: 'Don't judge a book by it's cover' so for those who are seeking for more deeper information and a serious read about Saudi Arabia, I reckon that you have better options to choose from.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
