Top anti-ageing creams and diet plans: Why Indians are ready to pay a huge price to look young
Age is not a state of mind — it is actually a minefield of skincare products and diet plans, tightly sealed in marketing jargon.
Although India woke up quite late to wholesale commercial age-defiance, the idea of 'stalling' age comes more naturally to us because of our tradition of lying about it.
Our traditional remedies for stalling the 'malady of ageing' are actually pretty old and practised for long — the science of Rasayana and a long list of honey, turmeric and anything that looks like a herb. We have been trying to bring back a person from the 'threshold of old age to the vigour of youth' for centuries now.
While the global anti-aging market is expected to exceed more than $ 216 billion by 2021, the age-defying industry in India too is fast maturing commercially. The battle against age is not just limited to home-grown wellness and cosmetics or diet plans. It has seen a massive infusion of semi-invasive procedures like Botox and Juvederm.
But, to be honest, the real reason behind this fast-catching up trend is more than consumerism. It is basically tied to how we value human beings — especially women — and have decided a shelf life for them: the use by/expiry date.
The market is only cashing in on our desire to remain young forever. It is our own creation than marketing gimmicks that have convinced urban India that it's okay to undergo the humiliation, pain and 'side effects' of Botox shots.
Many in the West have already stopped using the term 'anti-ageing' and are increasingly using 'concealers' such as anti-wrinkle, pro-age, age-perfect and slow-age solutions. An even better name is "radiant skincare", which, in other words, means wrinkly, pale-skinned women as well as men either look radiant or don't come out of their homes.
If earlier it was women nearing their 50s buying that fat, short-necked bottle of anti-age potion, now it's the late 20s and early 30s crowd digging their fingers into the "demoralising world of maturity".
We often say that age is not how old you are but how old you feel. But such motivational quotes actually make old age look like a villain whom no one should aspire to become.
Why should we not feel or look our age? What's wrong with being old?
In any case, this fear to feel our age also points towards a psychological degeneration. And even if you don't feel, look or claim to be older, that wouldn't stop your ageing clock from ticking. So, by concealing your age behind layers of anti-ageing cream or gulping down horrible tasting food and pills will only leave you feeling more and more disgusted with yourself. It will ruin your confidence and somehow make you feel like a killer, trying to hide the murder weapon.
The modern age has encouraged us to accept a lot of things and open up to inclusivity — our bodies, our sexuality, our desires, etc., etc. But we are still not ready to open up about our age. Almost every person loves it when told "You look younger than your age". Somehow, in a strange deterioration of mental faculties, we consider that a compliment.
Shouldn't we get offended if someone says you don't look as intelligent or as rich or as nice a human being? Or, if they say, you don't look as much of a man or woman as your actual gender is?
There is no end to the paranoia of ageing.
While women accepted this cognitive degeneration much earlier (because of the societal significance of looking young and beautiful even in death), much to the amusement of feminism, men too are increasingly feeling the heat of looking uber-young. The cosmetic industry is having a pretty good time looking at psyched-out men flooding the supermarkets to pick up that best anti-ageing or night repair cream.
The growing preference for a young work force and young leaders has successfully instilled in young India the fear of being relegated to 'margdarshak roles'.
What we really need is a magic potion to repair our broken self-esteem.