Do you consider yourself beautiful? If yes, good. If not, pay attention to the next seven words: you have no idea what you’ve got. Regardless of your current mental status, with time, you’ll realize that what matters the most is how you feel, not how you look. As a principle, time is supposed to wear us out and break us down. Nobody has escaped this prison of decay—so, what does that tell you? If you are smart enough to understand, it tells you that you ought to be wise about being alive. That fact that you are breathing right now is nothing less than a miracle. You could have died any moment but you didn’t. What can be more beautiful than that? 

Besides, once you are dead and gone, who cares about your face? 

Anyway, if you are still unconvinced, let me tell you something very fascinating: the moon is the only natural satellite of a planet in our solar system which doesn’t have an official name—it’s just moon—and its beauty has been celebrated for thousands of years by our species. Yet, the white little rascal chooses to remain oblivious of its own beauty. Why? Because it’s lonely in the ocean so stars. 

Are you lonely too? 

If yes, congratulations. If not, let me tell you that this blog post is about understanding beauty, not loneliness. Fuck loneliness. Anyhow, do you remember being happy in your solitude? Me neither. 

Have I told you that I once wrote a doggerel on the beauty of memories?

Can't recall it though.

In a nutshell, life is a parade of forgotten events and details. If you remember, then you are the odd one out. It’s apparently cool to move on as if nothing happened. As if our past doesn’t matter. As if our present is eternal. As if we have any control over our future. Which brings us to our relationship with time: we grew old and tired between seeking love and discovering innocence.

Well. 

That makes me wonder, if beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder, where does honesty lie? Damn.

Our society isn’t built for criticism. Its foundation is weak for a simple weakness: it thrives on flattery. If I tell you you are incorrect, you are bound to take it on your ego instead of your value. But it’s not your fault. Our society raised you like this. After all, the concept of beauty is imposed on the society by the society itself. 

Irony just died. Again. Like a Hindu in the ceaseless pursuit of moksha. 

If you don’t understand beauty, it’s OK. If you pretend to understand beauty, then you are being insincere. What do you see when you are standing on the beach looking out at the horizon? Nothing. And that's the beauty there. The miracle of our existence exposes itself in the most mundane of things. Staring at nothingness, interrupted by waves, is one such instance. 

Also, a lot of us, thanks to our cultural conditioning, seek beauty outside of us. We want our skin to glow and our hair to shin and teeth to gleam despite knowing very well that these are fleeting moments of youth and health. Although life can be cruel, beauty is what you feel from the inside and that is your cheat code to outlast your decline. 

Speaking of lasting peace, sleep plays a part here as well. Sometimes, how you spend your night has a bigger say in how you perceive your day. So, in all essence, beauty becomes a factor of the shuteye you get (read: deserve).

Do you hear that?

Oh, there is beauty in music too. Nearly 99% of us don’t understand music but that doesn’t stop us from enjoying it. A song or a note that resonates with your mood might not have been written for you but it still feels so. Isn’t that extraordinarily beautiful?

Also, music remains perennial young. You and I will erode and leave but music remains. Just like time. It remains blissfully young despite dying every passing moment. If only we could emulate them. 

Lastly, there could be many ways to achieve beauty—if you assumed American Beauty (1999) was about youth, then you are sorely mistaken; it was about realizing that what we want is not always what we need—and the fastest way to achieve it is by being nice to others. Particularly those who don’t know how to be nice. Start being nice and then move towards being kind. It’s a process that would test your patience.

This blog post was a terrible exercise, wasn’t it? There's very little difference between defining beauty and describing silence. A lovely paradox, if you may: the sheer amount of beauty that gets wasted on words.