Dear Readers,

“Let’s take a few selfies, Mum”. Lately, I have learnt to run the opposite way whenever my daughter comes to me with a seemingly harmless play idea. It is because I know with experience that a harmless makeup time ends with me looking like Medusa. I have now learned to say no to my daughter’s play suggestions prudently and carefully. But when I heard her asking for selfies, I thought, ‘why not’. What harm would that bring. Boy, was I wrong!

What I forgot was that this generation was born pouting for selfies. My 7-year-old knew how to pose and pout and clicked one amazing pic after another, of hers! When I objected that she is not making me look good, she gave me a piercing look, insinuating that there’s only so much a camera can do. I was not having any of that. I replied with my icy cold stare. That put her right back on track. She suggested that I lift my chin up, look in the distance, pout, and smile at the same time, and a thousand other things. I was unable to deliver, and the fact irritated me to my bones. “It’s so easy. Why can’t you do it?”, she chided me, just the way I chide her when she does her homework. “It’s not easy, okay”! I was genuinely angry by now. But just then my daughter cried “Yes, this is great”, which was followed by a ‘click’ sound.  “Look Mum, we are both looking nice”, she exclaimed, looking at the image adoringly. Looking at her sweet expressions my expectations rose immediately, and I took the phone to have a look at the picture. The picture was nothing like I expected, she of course looked deceptively cute, but me! With my nostrils flared up, lips pursed, and brows furrowed - I was once again looking like Medusa!

Enjoy the edition

Priyanka