Forever young, desperately

There was no denying that a huge illness has suddenly invaded Bollywood — the youth sickness. You would have to be blind not to realise that these days the entire media factory is busy promoting youthfullness. And the evidence of this is everywhere. Just switch on your television and see just how young mothers have become. A 40-plus actress has no place in our soaps unless she transforms herself via cosmetic surgery or agrees to play a grandmother! No wonder then that at a seminar of dermatologists which was held recently in India, a young doctor from Lucknow said that cosmetic surgery was poised to become a multi-crore industry in our country pretty soon. And the media, he said, was the engine that has driven this industry forward.

Mass media bombards us with youthful images and being old makes you feel as if you are perhaps suffering from some disease, rather than a natural state of development. Like the West, where you cannot pick up a magazine or turn on the TV without a commercial propagating instant youth via a creme or botox hitting you smack in the face, we too seem to be hurtling towards the same fate. The all pervasive youth culture makes it seem as if growing old is a problem that needs to be overcome, and for which the market has provided us with all kinds of ‘‘tools’’ in its super bazaar, to help us stave off this terrible affliction.

The medicalisation and comodification of the body, in the form of Viagra and Botox, has successfully reinforced the cultural expectation in the West, that men and women are required to ‘‘age well’’ and are supposed to maintain youthful masculinity and their beauty. Viagra has become a cultural phenomenon in the West and has spread across the mass media. It has entered the mainstream of conversations and is part of the American culture. It is only a matter of time that the consumer class in India will follow suit, along with McDonalds and Coke, and become a gold mine for the manufactures of cosmetic tools.

Like the epidemic which is changing the face of South Korea, pun intended. A petrol station in South Korea recently ran a promotional campaign called ‘‘Dreams Come True’’, in which customers could win prizes for filling up their tanks. One of the prizes was a chance to undergo plastic surgery. The beauty industry is a big business in South Korea. Upmarket spas specialise in luxury treatments like oxygen therapy for over-worked professionals. Something which is already happening in Mumbai.

A Time magazine investigation reveals it wasn’t too many generations ago that South Korean children had no control over their looks. But today, kids drop into the plastic surgeon’s office after school, and when they get home their folks can barely recognise them. Teenagers as young as 14 years old are doing it, and eye jobs have become a favourite high school graduation gift from proud parents.

‘‘Even parents make their kids get plastic surgery,’’ says a plastic surgeon practicing in Seoul, ‘‘just like they make them study. They realise looks are important for success.’’

But what is alarming about this plague of cosmetic surgery that is sweeping through the world is that in Hollywood it isn’t only the old but also young actors and actresses who are in their 20s and 30s that are going in for cosmetic surgery also. This is done as a pre-emptive measure fearing age. Casting directors in the USA complain that when they need to cast actors in the roles of parents it’s almost impossible. They just can’t find faces that look naturally weathered. What they are left with is entertainers who look like they have come from another planet. The reason for this: cosmetic surgery of course.

Cosmetic surgery is not necessarily a bad thing. It just depends on what you expect to get out if it. ‘‘If the aim is to purchase instant youth, vitality and romance, you will be disappointed,’’ says an actress who has recently gone through a very expensive surgery session. ‘‘My facelift is not a guarantee of a younger or better life. It is merely a tool to market my years for a few more years. There are no quick fixes to deal with old age. Coming face to face with age is a lengthy process,’’ she said philosophically, gulping down a stiff martini when I met her for my research of this article.

Though ageing is inevitable, advances in medical knowledge will allow us to extend the human life span beyond its present limits. The recent discoveries in the field of cell biology and molecular genetics seem to challenge the assumption that human life spans are beyond man’s control. But like the religious man markets the hope of eternal life after death, medical technology markets the hope of permanent youth in the life here and now. The sad truth is that both do not deliver the goods. According to me, embracing life and seizing the moment are the best antidotes to the fear of the future.