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December 22, 2005
Mirror, mirror on the wall
People have always been fascinated by the mirror. They should accept imperfections in their appearance because it’s the inner beauty that counts, writes a former mirror-lover Mohammad Muti-ur-Rehman Mumtaz
She could be a frenzied working woman, a frenetically busy housewife or a feverishly stylish teenage girl, the mirror stands at the very top of her list of ‘important household items’. And it is not just them, men of every age or size, creed or cast are smitten by the ‘how-do-I-look’ syndrome as well. As a matter of fact, there are quite a few who are also obsessed with the mirror. I mean, where else would you put an average of 306,079 glances thrown at the mirror per day? (nights excluded).
For a die-hard theatre lover — and there are many –– a man or a woman standing in front of a mirror presents a first-rated live display of face-twisting, tongue-sticking and eye-popping comedy. It is such a refined and natural exhibition of slapstick and clowning that it can leave Jim Carrey and Rowan Atkinson (Mr Beans) gasping for breath.
If it’s a man, he would usually start with raising his eyebrows to recheck his ‘I-don’t-give-a-damn’ look. Then he would smile, smirk, scowl and laugh at the mirror. Just watch a man combing his hair in front of the mirror and you can certainly feel how much he loves himself (a thousand and one apologies to the ‘bald and the beautiful’).
If it’s a woman, the situation becomes even more attention-grabbing. She usually starts with curving her lips into a ‘smooch’ and checking them to ensure the freshness of her lipstick. The next step would be the ‘teeth exhibition’, the ‘eye pop-up’ and the ‘hair-jerk’. Watching a woman doing her make-up can be an extremely interesting experience.
While applying mascara, eye-liner and eye-shades, she steps into the shoes of Marilyn Monroe, squinting and winking her eyes to that very lethal angle that Monroe was so aptly expert at. Next, through the application of blush on, she might reveal to the mirror all the delicate angles of her cheeks to ensure the proper enhancement of her cheekbone. Further deep into the process, she travels down to her lips — the most fatal portion. Finally, the last glance in the mirror would be a search for a perfect reflection.
Some people don’t possess the guts to face the reality thrown at them by the cruel mirror and hence end up smashing the poor thing into a thousand little pieces.
Imagine, if a few decades down the line, some lunatic scientist or a madcap physician succeeds in inventing mirrors which speak and laugh. One stands in front of such a mirror and it speaks out, “despite all of the attempts to look done up-to-perfection, you remain a pot-bellied, bald-headed and short-sighted fool,” or, “in the new hairdo, you resemble a perplexed porcupine”.
These nice comments could be accompanied by laughter derisive –– heck the mirror has a right to enjoy too after being endowed with such qualities.
Beauty, however, is only (proverbially) skin deep. A man ( more often, a woman) needs to accept any imperfections or shortfalls in his/her appearance. It is the inner self that counts. All said and done, the mirror will fortunately or unfortunately, always remain an integral part of a person’s life — giving hope one moment and despair the next.
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