I want to look sophisticated too

You know my mother never really taught me any girly stuff while I was growing up. It was dad who bought my clothes till I was old enough to select my own. But when it came to my mom, other than initiating me to the “women’s garment”, I don’t think she really did much. Everything I know is self taught by observing my classmates and later on in my life from reading magazines. Take waxing for instance – I came to know of this painful but wonderful procedure at the age of 18 when I joined college. Till that time my knowledge never extended beyond the usual razor. Nail polish – I remember in 12th std I saw my classmates using these. They sported long nails and colourful tips. Unfortunately for me, and due to my background, I still have close clipped nails. Then there are the high heel shoes – I love it, but I cannot for the life of me wear them. They give me terrible back pain and I have never worn high heels. I shot up to my current height of 5’6.5” (yes that 0.5 does make a difference) while still in secondary school and most of the time, I used to tower over my teachers and was assigned the back seat in the classroom. At that time I just wanted to blend in by becoming short, so there was no question of getting enamoured by high heels.

Then lipstick – I think I started wearing lipstick when I turned 20 or 21.

On a typical day, I go to the office gym in the morning. This means that I have to carry my office clothes to work; so it has to be something crumple-free and easily foldable. Hope you are getting the drift here – translate that to jeans and a casual shirt. Once gym is over, I take less than an hour to have my shower and dress up. Because I have waist length hair, I don’t have time to blow dry it (not that I would ever blow dry my hair – gives me a headache. Again once of those things which my mother forgot to teach me while I was younger). So here I am walking into the office building in my jeans with wet hair (no not dripping). (I must admit that my wet hair is something that brings me close to feeling like a typical mallu!!)

So what’s the point of this post? I wish the art of make-up and looking polished came naturally to me. It’s too late to crib about it now, but when I see all these women at work looking as if they just stepped out of the beauty parlour in the morning, I get jealous, very jealous...and I am old enough to understand that looks are very important when it comes to making that very first impression.

Talk to me and I can bowl you over, but look at me...and I would give you the impression of still being a tom-boy, albeit one with long-hair.....