Bittertweet Botoxification

What's with the world these days? I witnessed a very disturbing scene over the weekend. I was at the mall and was passing a manicure & pedicure salon and saw something that made me freeze on my tracks in total shock. No I didnt see ladies tearing each others' hair out just to be first in the queue *trust me I wouldn't be surprised by such a scene cos they are becoming quite frequent in the news these days arent they!*. What I saw was something totally new to me. There were 3 girls, probably around the age of not more than 6 or 7yrs, getting a pedicure done! Hang on, arent Beauty salons for grown ladies? When did BEAUTY and looking sexy become an issue/requirement/necessity for kids? I was stunned. These kids had faces of angels, they had barely grown out of their baby years, and here they were lying down like adults, wondering about God knows what until their tiny toe nails got painted in red slutty nailpolish by a woman old enough to be their granma! What are their parents doing to these children by letting them run amok with adult frenzies? Why do they need brightly painted toenails let alone manicures and pedicures? Arent those tiny feet supposed to be covered by sneakers and climb trees, or run barefeet in fresh green grass feeling nature on their skin?

These days there are kids on Twitter, Facebook etc doing what adults are doing...then there are Kate-Moss wannabes pursuing modelling careers at the age of 12...then there are kids going to Pre-uni classes at the age of 5! Kids these days know alot, want to be alot more than who they are, ask for alot more than they can afford, do alot of things that tarnish their innocence, only to feel 'cool' about themselves and to stay in touch with the trends. And in that process, they lose their entire 'childhood'. And their parents support all of this, sadly.

Peer pressure can be a killer of originality. Same applies to adults. The pressure to do what everyone else is doing is mind-numbingly sad. We live in an era where people are living pseudo lives, where Skype is how you stay in touch, where sleeping pills take care of all your worries, where a breakup is done through a txt message, where being HOT is what it takes to be loved, where a gun is the way of dealing with frustration, where your mother is no longer in your Call-today list, where relationships are as quick and cheap as a drive-thru meal, where having one-night stands and getting trashed is the 'in' thing, where Wants are endless, where 'plastic culture' is on the prowl. Life has become so fast, cheap and fake today that I wouldnt be surprised if a foetus in the womb demands a pedicure next *and the mother provides it too*! Today, life blooms with too much information, and the blossom withers and falls off way before it's time...simply because there's a paranoia of being left behind...something that need not be feared if you arent a follower.

Current Music: Californication by Red Hot Chilli Peppers