Page 76 - The World's Best Boyfriend

19

Dhruv took a few seconds to collect his thoughts. Then he held the microphone

close to his mouth and started to speak.
‘Respected Sir, and other professors in the audience, I am glad you asked this
question because not only do I have very strong views about the same but also
because it’s a pertinent one in this age. Objectification of both men and women

is rampant, be it in television, movies or books. Beauty is defined by shades on a
plastic strip, for both women and men, and by inches on a tape. Is that what we

have become? Are we not the most conscious beings in the universe? Then why,
I ask you, the boys and girls in the audience, then why, why would we always
turn our heads when a gorgeous boy or a girl walks by, and not when a studious,
ambitious, maybe average-looking girl does?’ Dhruv’s eye picked out Aranya

from the crowd, and she flushed, not knowing whether to be impressed or be
angry. She had been looking at the projector lights, wishing them to crash on his

head, but now she was listening to him.
‘Should we not look around us and try to see behind what’s obvious?’ His
gaze now caught hers and she couldn’t look away.
‘Should we not appreciate what’s in front of us? If we were blind, we would

have been better off for we could have seen things more clearly, for what they
are. The girls I see in the crowd,’ he pointed out to every girl in the crowd and

smiled at them, ‘every one of them is beautiful to me.’ He flashed an honest
smile. ‘Every one of them, and so much so, that if I had to fall in love with
someone right now, standing here, I would fall in love with every one of them.’

He brought his arm to his heart and bowed; the girls sighed and so did Aranya
and made a mental note to overdose on sleeping pills and die for doing so.
‘Every one of you is beautiful!’ He walked to the front of the stage, addressing

the crowd now. ‘You’re beautiful. So are you. And so are you,’ he pointed to the
bench of his professors and teachers. Suddenly he was Oprah. ‘And so are you,
Miss Aranya!’

Aranya blushed, her body exploded with warmth. ‘Fuck you, Aranya, get it
together,’ she told herself.
And with one last gesture of holding his arms wide open, he said, ‘ALL OF

US ARE BEAUTIFUL!’