Come Navratras and most Indian girls go on a fruit diet! nine days of controlled and permitted dieting. Even the elders don’t protest. Afterall their girls are learning to carry forward the legacy of fast in the much revered Indian tradition! So here we have 2 to 3 girls on an average in every Indian home, on their ways to fitting into tummy-showing tops and shorter blouses on family functions.

Preferred spread for these nine days? Options are endless. Fruits, yoghurt, sweets, endless preparations of potatoes made with Sendha Namak (Rock Salt), and the list goes on. And with a strong will to lose some good kilos in these nine days, girls happily gorge on goodies high on calories and extremely rich in fat content.

Coming to fruits…think of grapes, when on diet, the trainer asks to cut on mangoes and grapes to start with. Grapes are extremely calorie-high. A girl surviving on fruits all day will surely feel the push to indulge in some sin towards the end. What difference does it make if one bites into that laddoo or barfi for dinner? Accompanied with a bowl of dahi (yoghurt) of course! (We don’t believe in the concept of skimmed milk in our country, our yoghurts are creamy and fat-rich!). Should I even start on potatoes? So here we are, all participating in the ‘fast’ way to lose weight contest.

Isn’t this pitiable to see how the womenfolk, blindly, in the name of another woman power seek nirvana in attaining those sheerly overrated flat abs. Fasts have, undoubtedly lost their significance. Instead of trying to please the Goddess and detox, fasts, like our heroines have now gone under the knife to sport a new look. Good for us, if it solves the purpose. Bad, if it boomerangs. For now, let’s wait ‘n’ watch.