A hot topic

Every once in a while, a post on fitness and hotness makes an appearance on my blog. Such posts are mainly for me to motivate myself, and if aate-jaate kisi aur musafir ka bhala ho jaaye toh subhan allah. Putting it down in black and white (green and white in this instance) just makes sure I don't cheat on my resolution till the post is off the main page at least.

But this time I decided to be a little different. This time I decided to combine two of my passions - fitness and hot men who can sing. :D

A few days ago, I came across two videos on Youtube. Going by how many posts originate from my watching something on Youtube, if they ever close the site down, my blog may also have to shut down. *shudders*

Youtube ki jai ho! Watch this!

The after

Video courtesy Nishas810

*swoon & thud*

Ladies, you may want to replay the video from 02.22 to 02.20 for an added *swoon & thud* effect. For the benefit of the cutie-curious (curious about the cutie, duh!), this is Shekhar Ravjiani who has the ability to bring any Saregamapa cynic back into the game. For those of you who are wondering who the heck this chap is, well, he's Shekhar of Vishal-Shekhar, the hot music composer duo who are also mentor-judges on Saregamapa. I admit I do not watch the show as I still maintain that I have not heard one unique voice in such contests since Shreya Ghoshal's crystal one, but this, my friends, is one unique face (*swoon & thud again*) which I'm sure is more responsible for raising the TRPs of the show than the incredibly inane fights that Himesh 'main-tumhaare-ghar-aakar- roti-banaunga' Reshammiya gets into on the show. And also responsible for music-lovers like me you-tubing the show like mad in the weekends. Anyone who decides to jump and yell that he's married and has a kid and blah-blah will really get it from me – eye-candy is eye-candy. Eye-candy is never engaged/married/has-a-kid/blah-blah.

And now watch this...

The before

Video courtesy Megandiva

So after watching these videos (particularly the first one) a million times over, two 'How the heck' questions popped up in my mind.

1. Between the 'before' and the 'after', how the heck did this guy get so hot?

2. How the heck does this guy manage to look 10 years younger than he looked 10 years ago? (did you check out Sonu Nigam's clothes and hair in the second video? Those were the days, huh? ROFL!)

I started to list the changes that seemed to have gone into his amazing makeover. New haircut. Youthful clothes. A fitter body. And of course, the most important one - a brand new attitude encompassing that confident-naughty smile that reaches his eyes (ah, time to watch the video and pause at 02.22. Again!). The new and improved Shekhar (as opposed to that other Shekhar [Suman] fella) is amazingly easy on the eyes. Looking at the 'before', who would have thought he had so much potential? In the first video, he just looks like "random singer chap I couldn't be bothered about", but in the second, he's... errr.. "hunky and talented crush-material I can't stop obsessing about". The man has practically turned back time. He looks better now (I'm guessing he's in his 30s) than he did a decade ago, and I won't be amazed if he's still this sexy at 40.

And it set me thinking. Remember how we say, "She looks like an aunty!" and "He's like some 40-year-old pot-bellied uncle!"? Well, looks like there are no such generalisations anymore. Just because you're 40, you do not have the license to carry the 'aunty' or the 'pot-bellied uncle' look. The new 40-year-olds have arrived and they do not look like Rishi Kapoor in a pullover in the month of June. Akshay Kumar and Shah Rukh Khan are just two of this new breed that has redefined the age. Agreed, they are celebrities and they must look good to stay in the game, but when a 40-year-old gets himself a six-pack in three months for an inane song (of all the freakin' dards in the world, there's a dard-e-disco? Sheesh!), you know something has changed. And when music composers start looking so good, when they don't have to, and probably don't have the time for, you know something has drastically changed. Forget the celebrities, it is now trickling down to the common man's level. Phrases like "baby fat" and "I'm genetically fat, I can't help it" and "This is the prosperous look" and "I am what I am" and "why the obsession with youth?" and "I'm married. Who cares how I look?" and "I'm too old for all this" and "I'm too busy at work" and joking about one's own weight, denial ("I'm not fat. I'm just chubby.", etc.) are mere excuses for laziness. Being too much into one's looks may not be good, but being totally out of it isn't too good either. It is surely laziness, for who here does not want to look young, fit and pleasant? What really bugs the hell out of me is that fitness has no bad side effects. It's good for your health, and the only side effect is that we look and feel great! How much more of an incentive do we need?

Beauty may be skin-deep, but it does not mean we incorporate another layer of fat under our skin. Yes we may have flaws - everyone does - fat thighs, bad skin, a stubby nose, thinning hair, small stature, a paunch, but there is so much that can be done without resorting to plastic surgery. The right clothes, the right shoes, the right hairstyle, the right diet, the right workout regime, the right make-up, a genuine smile and the right attitude can more than make up for our flaws. Everybody has the right and ability to look good. Only if they want to. I consider myself a fairly fit person, and even I fall short of my own expectations. And joining me are my friends from all over the world who would like to lose some flab or get some abs or just get generally fitter. How many of us are going to get better-looking in our 30s than we are now? Do we really want to wait till we're 40 and then see how things look before we buck up?

I think our generation, particularly our age – is a unique one. We are well-read and aware and driven and energetic. We're sufficiently crazy to stay happy, yet mature enough to understand a little of this puzzle called life. We do the maddest things, laugh at the silliest things and behave in the most random of ways, but we still know the value of values. We're between the boring and the immature generations. We're young at heart and will probably stay so till we die. We just need to put in a little effort to make sure we look as young as we are. But the problem is - we're also the generation that likes to procrastinate. We've had an easy life and we're spoilt. We're the generation that follows a sinusoidal curve when it comes to fitness or any other form of discipline – one month we're all charged up, and the next few we're back to our old ways. We need spurts of inspiration every now and then to keep us going. Something that friends and family can't provide, because they're too damn exhausted. Especially when we're going downhill.

And then suddenly, the clouds part and the sun shines through. What seemed so difficult is suddenly deemed easy. One hot guy on TV is all it takes to bring in the much-needed spurt of inspiration. Not just any hot guy, but a not-so-hot-before-but-now-smokin'-hot guy. To inspire us to look a little better. Or at least to put in a little more effort into looking better.

Good looks may be over-rated, but looking good surely isn't.