No Filter: Shakthisree made glasses look cool

What struck me and several of my friends apart from falling in love with her as an artiste was how she wore spectacles everywhere.

More often than not performers switch to contact lenses as wearing glasses on stage and in frontof the camera isn’t considered attractive, something I have had to do.

For many of us, who needed spectacles as children, have grown up thinking it makes us look less attractive when we wear one as you get called names like ‘four-eyes, soda buddi’, etc. A popular trope with Indian cinema is that the nerdy friend or the accountant character will wear glasses or if it’s a hero or a heroine wearing glasses, there is a ‘much needed’ makeover scene where they switch to contact lenses. So to have someone who is a popular playback singer and a star on the indie music circuit wearing her glasses with no qualms is refreshing and long overdue. She is going to be judging a singing reality show and will be in our living rooms in all her bespectacled glory.

Paulo Coelho said people learn 25% from their teacher, 25% from listening to themselves, 25% from their friends and 25% from time. In this day and age, we need to redo those numbers to add learning from pop culture to the list. Hopefully, now you will look at someone wearing spectacles through a different lens and if you are someone who is a soda buddi like Shakthisree and I, tell yourself: I am beautiful!