Week 15- Beauty or Brains?
"Tricks and treachery are the practice of fools, that don't have enough brains to be honest"- Benjamin Franklin
The way she came into the place He knew right then and there that there was something different about this girl. The way she moved-Her hair, her face, her lines: divinity in motion. As she stalked the room he could feel the aura of her presence. Every head turned to feel the passion and lust. The girl was persuasive. The girl he could not trust. The girl was bad. The girl was dangerous. The girl was a master of disguises. As she walked into the hall every eye turned upon her. Little did they know of her actual purpose of visit? She thought to herself "the necklace is my now”. With a grim on her face she moved like a cat so quietly through the crowd. Her goal was almost in her hands. She could feel the ecstasy and euphoria of claiming the ultimate prize. Linda wasn't just any thief. It was the out of the normal stuff that excited her. The challenge of stealing the impossible was what made thieving fun for her. The Maharajah's jewels had been on her mind for quite some time now. No one knew how she looked in reality. Few hours before going to rendezvous she sat applying make-up so carefully that one would mistake her for Marilyn Monroe. She looked at the mirror deep in thoughts planning her every move with great care. "Everything has to be perfect", she muttered to herself. She walked pass the guards with such ease and elegance. Not one suspected her. Not one but him. He saw her move from the corner of his eye. As she made her way to the bar. "One Martini , she said. He stood there watching her. Was he wrong after all? Could she just be an ordinary woman? He walked up and sat beside her and ordered a scotch. "A strong evening for you I see", she said. He gave her a smile and sipped on his drink looking at her, admiring her beauty. She took out her phone. "Oops", she said as it fell. He bent down and picked it up. She thanked him and continued with the drink.
She took her drink and proceeded to examine the various artefacts. As she saw the jewels, s viscous smile came on her face. It was time. She opened her purse and dropped her lipstick. And walked away. He bent down and picked it up. But to his utter amazement it was just a mere lipstick. So he was wrong after all. He watched her walk down the aisle and round the corner. And then it was all gone. He started coughing deeply. He took deep breaths and started walking towards the door for a fresh gasp of air. A few steps more", he said to himself. He fell down with a thud. He could see a silhouette passing by. Suddenly he could hear the chaos in the hall. Sound of people screaming. The lights wear off. He struggled to get up. The lights came on. The lady was missing and so were the jewels. She had left a note "I Turn At The Close". He grabbed the note and wondered what it could mean.
It had begun to rain. The lady's face was yet so fresh in his mind. He couldn't believe how easily he was deceived. The face was the index of the mind. He laughed and said," I'll find you miss beautiful."
-Chaitanya Ramji (Writer of the Week)
SE, SIES Graduate School of Technology
#2 Eternal Conflict
At the face of it, one would just get an echo of Leonard Nimoy's voice as Spock saying "It is only logical." Conventional opinion would always favour brains. As much as I would like to rebel against this and try to show myself as the one who treads 'less traversed paths', I could not in good conscience, bring myself to support beauty on the face of it. Beauty without brains, or substance, is like a closed window in a beach house. What is there to enjoy? Beauty is after all ephemeral and fleeting. Compared to the age of the universe, the human life span is but a speck and in that speck the existence of beauty is unimaginably negligible. Now, I'm strictly talking about external beauty, you know the one which causes normal people to act like huge... (Fill it up as you please). Internal beauty is a wholly different business. To all those who are arguing about internal beauty (if you are), I admire your stand and pray that many more of you populate the Earth. Sadly that manner of idealism is good in words...only words...
In the course of things beauty is the first thing that is noticed, brains are depressingly not apparent. Esteemed reader, I ask you one thing, would you genuinely admire a gorilla's beauty (yes? Wow, my respect for you has trebled) or is it the display of dexterity and skill that would be the endless source of fascination? Beauty works only within a given species, what does a chimpanzee care if Angelina decided to waltz around it? (It might appreciate the dance, who knows?)
Now from a purely survival point of view, there need be no conflict that of the two, brains are what will ensure the odds of survival. What makes you think, made humans the dominant species of the planet? Beauty is just a superfluous addition. The saying is ‘Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder’, cleverness is apparent the moment one opens one’s mouth. At the cost of another clichéd opinion, I stand by brains.
-Sathyaghan Iyer
TE, SIES Graduate School of Technology
In the course of things beauty is the first thing that is noticed, brains are depressingly not apparent. Esteemed reader, I ask you one thing, would you genuinely admire a gorilla's beauty (yes? Wow, my respect for you has trebled) or is it the display of dexterity and skill that would be the endless source of fascination? Beauty works only within a given species, what does a chimpanzee care if Angelina decided to waltz around it? (It might appreciate the dance, who knows?)
Now from a purely survival point of view, there need be no conflict that of the two, brains are what will ensure the odds of survival. What makes you think, made humans the dominant species of the planet? Beauty is just a superfluous addition. The saying is ‘Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder’, cleverness is apparent the moment one opens one’s mouth. At the cost of another clichéd opinion, I stand by brains.
-Sathyaghan Iyer
TE, SIES Graduate School of Technology
#3
I wish you were a dreamer for dreamers believe and hence so
would you, when I told you that real beauty lies in the heart and that it
reflects in thoughts and shows in actions. I would also love to tell you that
beauty is an ‘abstract- reality’. Nothing is more beautiful than the joy on a
child’s face and the relief on his mother’s when after wandering through the cruel
crowd, their eyes finally meet each other’s. Beauty is innocence. Beauty is there,
where is love. As long as we don’t lose our ability to love, we remain
beautiful.
But alas, you are not a dreamer and
so you are aware that our world is not the Promised
Land. Rather, it’s an insensitive, intolerant and a hypocrite one with me
obviously being one of its most prominent members. Our society of morons
functions according to an unwritten but highly evident law. The law has endured
the test of time quite well and I am optimistic about its future too. The law
states that, “The ease of one’s existence is directly proportional to the
degree of beauty (in case of the fairer
sex) or the degree of monetary wealth (in
case of well…the sex obsessed), with the constant of proportionality being
the brains”.
So the brains do have a role to play after
all? Obviously they do. It’s just that it’s a concept bit too intellectual for us
ignorant to grasp. I say this also because I am not really aware if Edison was
very rich or if Madam Curie had won some French beauty contest. Probably not.
But then she did win a double Noble. Not
so bad after all? But yes, women fancied Einstein’s hairstyle.
In a one on one war, Beauty comes out
as the famous martyred soldier while brain is the unsung hero. It is because beauty can only seem, but brains can talk.
Beauty may attract, but brains can make you fall in love and mostly because beauty
will wither away but the brain is sure to stay.
And for the one who possesses the
beauty and the brain, the one who is as beautiful as love itself, who is as
clever as there can be....well , let’s not talk about her yet.I just hope she
reads this.
-Pramit Kumar
Creative Head, Scintilla Weekly
SE, SIES Graduate School of Technology
#4 Beauty and the Beast
There was once a beast and there was a beauty. This might take a while and you might think you know this one but just give it a benefit of the doubt and read on.
So getting back to the tale of the beauty and the beast...
Firstly, the beast. Was a kind hearted soul. But well, he was a beast...so always the least favoured. Led him to be impulsive and chaotic but he never had any bad intentions. He always considered other's before his needs. But well, he was a beast, so always the one who didn't fit in the crowd. He was a little reserved. Diminished in his words. He had so much to tell but found the crowd far away.
He learnt what true beauty meant because he looked at the person from the inside because being outside the crowd; he couldn't make out the faces from a mile apart. So he treated them as one, as human judging them solely by their voice from the depths of their nature and then he'd know who was real and how much of actual beauty lies in their soul.
When in a crowd there is so much glitter that the voice dies away. But the farther you are from the crowd the light fades and the voice echoes. He could hear beyond their skins and see lies in their voice. He stopped looking at rules for answers because outside the bunch there is just your heart to guide you and your conscience to judge you. Being outside, the beast tamed the beast inside him and all that lay there was beauty. But no one would look at him. But he still thought that the world was beautiful. That it just needed to tame its beast to understand the beauty inside him.
Now the beast was always searching for his beauty, because well, no beauty and the beast tale are complete without a beauty. But this beast wanted a beauty that was endless in time. Who would go on to see the spirit behind his scars. Who he would be able to love beyond measure and reason. He kept listening for a voice... Many beautiful faces walked out of the crowd... who touched his face in the darkness, but when he shed light on his shortcomings,
those hands and faces retraced to be mixed away into the crowd.
He then saw another beauty... he was convinced that this face was a hoax too. Just another beauty without a soul. But then her radiance had something else. It felt true. It felt comforting. She reached out. There was something else too. She was running away from a face, a silhouette that haunted her. A part of her wanted to go back to the dark man even though it would destroy her. She, held out her hand and the beast couldn't help, mesmerized by her vibe, reach out. She grabbed his hand. She let out a sigh of relief and she was finally beyond the reach of the dark man. She laughed and they spoke for a while. The beast was baffled at how beautiful she was in her thoughts as well as in her looks. He fell in love with this beauty as they held hands and walked. They spent an evening talking about their worlds. He thought his search was over.
Then the beauty realized something as the moonlight cleared his face that he was the beast after all. The darkness, she said made her think that she was with the silhouette that she was in love with. She said she was sorry and ran back into to darkness, into the crowd. The beast was shattered and scarred to his soul, but couldn't let go of what he felt for his beauty. He knew he couldn't live without her and ran back following that trail of sweet voice she left mixed with the air.
He kept staring at the crowd. He couldn't enter. She wouldn't leave, the darkness pulling her in. He saw her. She was beautiful. He heard her voice. Remembered her words.
She was still beautiful. To him she was perfect.
He hoped someday she would see that he was the beast and she the beauty of this tale. Both truly beautiful in thought and at heart but held at faces apart.
Moral of the story: Beauty lies within everyone and as different aspects in a person.
True that beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder, but sometimes we just refuse to truly perceive.
-Nishant Nair
SIES Graduate School of Technology
beauty is one that each of us want. but god gives to only those who deserve it. so be worthy and do not beg for it