oh!!! wo-(man-ia)
edition 5 july‘2014
Fat and Ugly, Thin and Beautiful?
……..that was the name of the book I
wrote when I was 17. It became a
bestseller. Or sort of a bestseller. I
published around 35 copies. Many
people bought it from me for 15Rs. I
couldn’t charge more than that. It barely
had 50 pages. Well, it was not about
hand, never believed in that. I was tired
of the depressing talks they made.
During one of our college fest, I decided,
no matter how round and plump and
horrible and gory we looked, we would
There is no Ugly!
chance to interact with many guys,
and they were all amazing. I had a
preconceived notion that they would
dislike me because I wasn’t pretty. I
was nothing but amazing. In my
head. I always loved myself. There
was no reason for them to hate me,
anyway. As I got more involved with
other people in the gang, my myths
about “being fat and ugly” changed.
I was fat. And Ugly. And Gross. I
don’t call myself any of that. That
was the label that was given to me
back then. I was just a teenager and
wasn’t a famous one. I did not have
a group of good looking friends. I
just had a few friends who were fat,
ugly and gross like me. Birds of
same feather flock together, they
say. Like fate would have had it, our
group was named FATSO. Five
friends, with names from each of
those letters. I was the “T”. Tina. T
for Tina.
I remember, how the most beautiful girl
in our class would come dressed in
amazing clothes and how the guys would
run after her trying to befriend her. She
and her group were always in news.
Sought after!
By the time I turned 16, I knew there was
nothing sweet about it for me and my
girls - The FATSOs. There were times,
when the other four would whine about
how unfair life is to them. I, on the other
That’s the word.
With Vinay Sir’s entry in my life,
everything changed. I started getting
involved in different activities, where
“looking pretty” was not a criteria. I
started writing my book too! I got a
No one’s ugly.
money anyway. It was in 1993,
internet talks were just in air and I
had no idea how I could tell people
my story. I did anyway.
Fatema, Anuja, Suji and Oshi were
more or less like me. The other four
of our wretched group.We would get
together, not because we liked each
other, but because there was no one left
for us to mingle with. What’s with this
nepotism? Since school days, this was
the drift, and we stayed together through
all our college years too. It was difficult
to accept that we were best friends,
consequentially. We had nothing in
common, except our physical traits.
Ultimately, we were! Best friends.
Because we were together. No matter
what happened!
Acceptance.
go and participate in the competitions
and put up a brave show. No one
bothered to cheer us, except Vinay Sir. I
had an instant crush on him.
I nailed the debates and essay writing
events. Many girls coul F