‘Mirror, Mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all’?
In this fairy tale Snow White had an evil stepmother, who always looked in to the mirror and always asked that question. One day, instead of saying “You are, my queen”, the mirror said “Snow White is the fairest of them all”.
This made queen angry, so she banished Snow White to live (or die) in the forest. The seven dwarfs found her, and she lived with them. Thus the fairy tale goes! I am, however, long past my fairy tale days. Hence, let me stop this fairy tale business here.
What I wish is to dwell here on the relationship between my mirror and I.
Unlike the scores of people, I am not a fan of mirrors. I do not spend more than 5 minutes in a day before the mirror. 50% of these 5 minutes go to my daily shaving. I have seen many people of both sexes spending substantial time before the mirrors checking how beautiful they are and methods of enhancing their beauty! Each of them thinks, they are the most beautiful people in the entire creation. They smile, talk, laugh, sex and cry before the mirror; they ask the mirror the 100th time every day, who is the fairest of them all! Shaving, eye-brows, make-up, wearing clothes, wearing jewelry, wearing clothes, admiring their own naked body pouting and finally love-making are few activities these people perform before the mirror – of which I could write in a passing way. Mirror became the soul of man!
Who do not appear beautiful to themselves? Over 50% of any man’s waking life is spent before mirrors. You may say I am over stating it. This is far from true; rather I am understating. Show me a place that does not have a mirror? With the advent of mobile phones, people began to keep the front camera open always. People fell in love with their own images.
I abhor mirrors. I look for ways and means to reduce mirror time. In fact, I hate mirrors; utterly scared of mirrors. Whenever I look into the mirror, the person in the mirror tells me how ugly I am! I was wearing the snow white drycleaned beautiful white cotton shirt and navy-blue suit (Raymond’s), when I last looked at myself in the mirror. The man in the mirror laughed and said that I am the ugliest man alive in the world. The man in the mirror told me If clothes & make-up can make you a beautiful man, then the God must be regretting His creation’! Understand this fact clearly Mr. Reddy, it is not the clothes but the man behind those stupid clothes and that man is the most beautiful man in the world!’
These mirrors are thus a constant reminder of the fact of our stupidity & cock surety. They consistently remind me that there are greater and more beautiful things in life. Rather than looking at our own face and admiring it, the God constantly remind us to look at all those lasting things. Whenever I look into a mirror, it acts like a talisman – it tells to look beyond the mirror.
About the Author
Dr. K. Raja Gopal Reddy is a seasoned internationally qualified Insurance professional. What you are reading here, may not answer all the questions we have, but has the absolute power of asking unsettling questions which increase the interest in the strange world, and show the contradictory wonders lying just below the surface of the commonest things of life. Look at this disturbing but beautiful thought of Friedrich Nietzsche “God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him”. Dr. Reddy can be reached at: raja66gopal@gmail.com
