What is beauty?????

What is Beauty?

All beauty is permanent.

That is the test.

Oh So I thought!

If a flower wilts

And yet looks beautiful,

Its permanent

It’s beautiful

If a smile turns to sadness

And you see the beauty of human pathos

Its permanent

And it’s beautiful

Some buildings get older

Yet look more beautiful than ever

The Taj Mahal

The Sabrata Familia

The Mease pavilion

The CEPT building in Ahmedabad

Should good Education help you

Discriminate between the beauty of youth

And eternal beauty

Eternal beauty has a quality about it

Timeless

Ageless

Static

Yet Dynamic

The smile of Mona Lisa

The words of Mirza Ghalib

The magnificence of of the Taj

How does one convert these unique experiences?

Into personal ones?

The first time my daughter looked into my eyes and laughed

The first time my Son curled his little finger into my hand

Almost handing his life over to me

The first time I took a lecture

And I saw faces brimming with awe and enthusiasm

But these are all fleeting experiences, frozen in the   essence of time

I seek therefore I feel incomplete

The sad part is

The beauty of a building has many horror

Stories of subjugation and human terror

The Taj was made with a lot of slavery.

Was the slavery beautiful?

No it could not have been.

Therefore the process of making something beautiful is more important?

Or is process never important?

Is beauty serendipity?

I was walking down my lane today.....

I Saw a family of 3 generations pick up beautiful flowers and throw them

In the air and I smelt those flowers

Was the human bonding more beautiful than the flowers?

What is therefore real beauty?

Is it a fleeting experience?

Is it the permanence of a great edifice?

Is it the love for the child?

I do not know

May be in the seeking of beauty, itself lies the beauty of human existence

Is beauty an experience?

Or a timeless, ageless building, poetry or a painting

That my friend the real question!

Parag Shah
22nd May 2012