Brown Beauties

Lisa likes to say that Indians are among the most beautiful people she has ever met. I think she first came to such a strong conclusion about a year ago. She had, of course, been exposed to Indians for some time and realized that at least some of us are exquisitely beautiful creatures (did I mention we were freshman year roommates?), but it was when she came with me to the Pakistan earthquake relief that she was surrounded by South Asians en masse, and moreover, most were attired in the salwars and saris requisite for such a function.

It's true. Indians are a pretty good-looking bunch. Perhaps stressfully so if you are an Indian female and thus required to meet the standards, continually raised by the likes of Aishwarya Rai and Anchal Joseph. But, as proud as I am of my genetic heritage, in all fairness, the colorful clothes and piles of gold do help us out. And even though I have a weakness for Converse-wearing Gujarati boys, it is clearly the women who are India's ambassadors of beauty.

Consider the evidence.

I recently attended the voice recital of a family friend. I wore a salwar kameez. I wore a heavy ruby necklace. I wore ruby earrings that pulled at my ears. I wore a gold bracelet, hugged by two white glass bracelets, on each wrist, and I wore anklets. I decided to finally bust out the make-up I'd bought for job preparation (when in New York), because I knew all the other girls would. I had to tame my still-wet, soon-to-be-frizzy hair. I wore a pottu.

My mother, similarly, had to wear a sari and enough jewelry to keep up appearances. (Because leaving the house without earrings in such circumstances is not really an option.)

My father wore a short sleeve shirt and pants. Same for my grandfather, although he managed to sneak out with a shirt that had a ketchup stain.

It's an attitude that's been instilled in us since childhood. All of the little girls at the function were dressed up in some degree or another. At the very least the had on nice American clothing. And many had the fancy Indian clothing with jewelry; admittedly most of them didn't quite have rubies, some two year olds were sporting edible-looking plastic bracelets that looked much more wearable. The boys, however, were allowed plaid shirts and khakis, a few wearing just t-shirts and shorts. There were a few adorable exceptions of long-sleeve shirt and black suit pants wearing boys, but those were decidedly the exception, whereas the well-dressed female is the rule.

I know this is a disparity that occurs in most cultures, but I do think that at Indian functions, the gap seems to be especially wide. Still not sure how to remedy this, but at the very least, my groom will be wearing a gold-trimmed vesti and forced to carry a brick that weighs about the same as all the jewelry I'll be wearing. Fair is fair.