Recently I watched the Telugu movie “Size zero” that beautifully showed the struggles of a healthy girl, who battles it out cheerfully at every stage and succeeds at the end without becoming slim. The movie for me seemed different from other movies because most of the movies of the same concept end up showing the protagonist reduce weight and then become a success.

This movie put me in a deep thought - it seemed so relevant to the present scenario. The movies, serials, advertisements all seemed to have changed the way of thinking, the thinner the beautiful, the fat the ugly.

Who defines what is beautiful and not. So many young girls and boys today spend lakhs together to just fit into the bracket of so called beautiful.

Being on the heavier side myself, I have always faced the criticism and sarcastic comments of people. Relatives, friends, neighbours all seemed to be more concerned about my weight rather than what I achieve or do. This did not push me down; rather it made me strong to achieve my goals.

The matrimonial ads vouch for slim and beautiful girls, does that mean only slim girls make good spouses; what about girls on heavier side? Do they fail to make good spouses?

This is the result of hypocrite world. Our behaviour sends wrong vibes to the coming generation. Recently I saw a picture shared on Facebook, a little plump girl takes a scissor to chop off her stomach by seeing a photo of a model with a flat stomach.

My little cousin once while having dinner promptly asked me what is this in my plate, I told her it was mutton curry and she immediately wanted me to take it out from her plate, because she felt eating mutton would make her fat. She was barely 7 and her thoughts had swayed too far.

It’s not wrong to be thin, when we know our weight is hindering our health and day to day activities we must take measures to maintain a healthy weight. What becomes a mistake is when we reduce to fit into someone else’s bracket. A girl reduces just to get married to the boy of her choice; a guy slogs in gym just to get noticed. When you do things to impress others and fail to express your real self that is when it is useless.
Remember real beauty is in ones heart, no one can steal it. A thin body can grow fat, but a good heart can never go bad. It’s not only our responsibility to appreciate each other for the way they are but also must teach our coming generations to love the way they are.

Unless one loves oneself they would never be able to love anyone or be good citizens. Today relationships fail because it’s based on artificial expectations, couples love fade when body bends and skin speckles.

It’s important to remember that your body height or weight does not define you. What you do in life makes you a person of respect.

Remember to respect yourself and also the other person. That is when our world would become more beautiful.