Calm down and relax. This is the message coming from the natives of Baldeosmourita, a village in the interiors of Sudeansthan, that is located just behind Himalayas in the northern part of India as the tension is brewing in the village since the local authorities decided to forfeit their plan of appointing and honoring one 'beauty of the village' per month. On Tuesday, the Nawab of the Baldeosmourita asked the villagers to show ‘maturity’ and focus their attention on more important things like doing household chores, producing babies and serving their lethargic husbands.
The comment came as the backdrop of the growing desire in women folks of the village to occupy the lime light as the most beautiful woman of the village for one full month and their frustration at not being selected and honored like their peers.
Since the decree was announced by local authorities of selecting and honoring the beauty of the village, all the women in the village had changed their life style. One beauty was appointed by the authorities each month, which wore the diamond studded crown during all times of the day, at home, when she sat in her balcony, or when visiting her neighborhood and even in the market place. The experience was very rewarding, woman who had succeeded in wooing the organizers and making it to the dais of honor, enjoyed the respect and love of the villagers. She enjoyed the pampering, attention and the gifts of the villagers for one full month. She was allowed to brag about her hidden talents, gossip to her heart contents and even visits any random house in the village for a free lunch. Every woman waited for her turn while she envied her peers who enjoyed the limelight and she secretly nurtured the desire to be the lucky one during the next month. Most of the women had make-over, some of them going to the neighboring villages to change their dress sense and some even attended the finishing school (taking loans from banks) to learn some etiquettes and ‘the right behavior’ as they called it.
During the last six years, more than seventy such candidates have already been selected. Some deserving and some, not so deserving. The villagers have not been able to figure out the criteria for the selection of the candidate by the organizers. Like, for example, one beauty was selected randomly because she was not available for comments when the organizers had selected the wrong candidate. Yet, another one was selected, while she was on holiday and her presence was missed by the organizers and they wanted to know her whereabouts’. There were some who were shabbily dressed, some lazy and bored and some completely disinterested.
But the genuine ones who really deserved the status waited patiently for their turn.
Now, for some unknown reasons, the selection of ‘beauty for the month’ had come to rest. This has angered the women of the village, who had invested so much time and effort in maintaining themselves in the hope that they would be selected some day. The angry mood has been splashed on the web too, with viral messages spreading through videos, blog entries and discussion groups. Consider a video of a well dressed villager in native dress exposing her bare skin, just enough to arouse an interest in her anatomy, protesting inside a police van that has been uploaded on You Tube, “ This is the ******* police who arrested us in two groups,” the blurb for the video reads. “Now we will do something about this. Now they should protect themselves from us.” Such video, picked up after the arrest, have embarrassed the organizers of the beauty pageant and are asking Nawab of the Baldeosmourita for some help and solutions to this uprising.
In the bid to introduce some peace, Nawab of the Baldeosmourita has urged the villagers to calm down and relax and concentrate on more important activities that are reserved for woman only, such as doing household chores, producing babies and serving their lethargic husbands.
He has assured the villagers, that he will have ‘high-level-dialogue’ with the authorities and that the matter will be soon sorted out.
“The selection of beauty pageants will be continued as soon as some hiccups are iron out” he shouted with an air of confidence, during his speech on local TV channel during the prime time slot.
