'M' came to me and said softly, I want to talk to you. I wondered what was it all about. She sat down, looked long at her toes and said softly...."I want to look different"



I gaped at her and was surprised to say the least. I've know her for about 7 years know, she is so full of life, bursting with ideas and enthusiasm, loves clothes and dressing up as much as any girl of our age. Why was there a need to be someone else?



"Everyone tells me that I am dark, fat and have pimples...." she continued. "I want to lose weight and change the way I look." My heart went out to her. I spent the next 10 mins telling her that she can lose weight, by a judicious mix of exercise and good eating habits, and how it would help clear her pimples, but there was nuthing wrong with her skin colour or the fact that her hair were not silken and straight....



I told her abt another 'N', another frnd of mine..plump in a way that made kids snuggle upto her, one day someone taught her the "moves" to loose weight and with an angelic smile she said, "But I love the way I am, and don't want to change anything abt myself"!



As I got to know 'N' better, I realized that she had a rare gift of having come to terms with the way she looked, and making the most of it. She was a Model Co-ordinator, her jo placed her in the proximity of the thin and beautiful, she always managed to radiate a serene self esteem that showed she knoew her self worth.



'M' listened, and I saw her eyes lifting beyond the level of her feet, and I hoped that she would understand that what really matters is how she saw herself rather than how others saw her.



How very often do we see ourselves through other's eyes!? We see our flaws, not our best features. Even the plainest person has at least one really beauiful feature, and if we can find it and play it up, how different would our attitude in life be. We would stop wanting to be who we are not, stop wishing we looked like someone else!