Written By: Debjani Arora | Updated : February 28, 2018 12:49 PM IST
On a lazy Sunday morning, sipping on a hot cup of tea picking my mobile to check Facebook I receive the shock of my life, most timelines say Legendary Bollywood Actor Sri Devi dies of cardiac arrest at 54 in Dubai. The whole thing seems so unreal; as I sigh and try to breathe and get over that heavy feeling clutching my chest and scroll down further I know that I have to face this reality. The Hawa-Hawai girl will now be only in my memories forever.
As the day passes a very annoying message on WhatsApp and Facebook starts doing the rounds criticising the Diva s life choices and how she is to be blamed for this untimely death for indulging in cosmetic surgeries and weight loss treatments, it also pointed fingers at her husband accusing him of treating her as an arm candy. The message read:
Received this message in WA ...
while we are all mourning the untimely demise of Sridevi, it is important to remember why this may have happened to her. society demanded that she stay slimmer/look younger than a 40 year old, 50 year old and plus 50 woman needs to be--hence, the continuous surgeries. when i met her about 5 years ago, she was beautiful but a sad version of that self that we loved so much in a movie like Chandni. What a lot of pressure to keep her weight down, to make sure that her face had no wrinkle lines....continuous clinic visits in Southern California. as a friend of mine, Dipanwita Basu wrote this morning...do we need a #metoo movement in fashion, #notsize0? Milan has already implemented this but these patriarchical implants were in her head -- the husband, who claimed to love her so much should have intervened, did he love the way she looked as his arm candy more than he loved her? She herself did not trust in her own beauty -- she was a clothes horse for whoever would care to dress her. What i conclude is she had such a lack of love for oneself and such a lack of self esteem that her own lips didn't suffice, her own face was not good enough, her flesh and blood had to be sucked out of her so that she could wear the best of couture. that is the sadness of a life that could have been lived so much better not just for her but for her daughters. what a terrible legacy for her girls.
Now, I am not going to tell you whether you should or should not forward such messages. I am sure you have your own sense and sensibilities to know the right from the wrong. But still, I would want to say that if you have not been into one s shoes, nothing gives you the right to criticise them at death. We at www.thehealthsite.com don t know if she has ever indulged in cosmetic surgeries or weight loss procedure neither we are to judge. Every human being has the right to live and live life on his/her own terms. Read here about the sad demise of the diva due to a cardiac arrest.
But being a health site it is our moral responsibility to tell you and warn you from taking the wrong path to be healthy and ageless. We are not taking about Sridevi, but a lot of young girls and even women who are in their 40s or 50s are becoming a slave to cosmetic procedures and weight loss surgeries to retain their youth. This is a reason why these cosmetic clinics are booming in every city. We tried speaking to few doctors and cosmetic surgeons to know if subjecting to repeated cosmetic procedure have any health implication (not that we don t know about it, but better to get it from the horse s mouth), but none wanted to comment. We are concerned about the mortality and fatality of such procedures.
However, here is what Dr Sanghanayak Meshram, psychiatrist and sexologist; Mumbai had to say when we asked him if too much obsession with one s beauty can lead to deteriorating health. Society has a way of setting certain unattainable and unsuitable standards for people. For Sridevi it was no less, the public, in general, lauded her more for her beauty than her talents. There was a time when the term Sridevi was used as a compliment, implying Sridevi is synonymous with beauty. When society makes you the epitome of beauty, you start to internalise it and want to live with that tag. We, humans, strive to hold on to those feel-good factors forever. This is when you push yourself in the wrong directions to stay ageless and yes it will definitely cost you your health.
We aren t saying you should not take care of yourself as you age but know that the body is supposed to be a certain way during certain phases of your life, we can only nurture and nourish it to stay healthy and fit. Defying nature s actions can at times be life-threatening.
Image source: Shutterstock
