EXTRAORDINARILY BEAUTIFUL

She looked fairer in the photograph. You cannot trust anybody now!

–And her hair? Even a bird didn’t consider it worthy enough to make a home.

–And she didn’t even reach Samarth’s shoulder. People would have ridiculed us for getting our only son married to a dwarf-like person!

This was not the first time Poornima was subjected to such comments; in fact, so regular an affair they had become that she had become immune to them. As the last word echoed through the corridor outside the entrance of her house, she impassively got up from the sofa where the unfortunate event had taken place and went straight to her room.

Ever since she was a child, Poornima was taunted, made fun of because of her appearance; One might say she was not beautiful. But the truth was that her appearance did not fit the prescribed, bourgeois standards of beauty. Belonging to a middle-class Indian household, it was a matter of the most serious concern for her family—who would marry her when she comes of age?

Poornima’s mother had moved heaven and earth to try to make her daughter more “beautiful” but nothing “worked”. When the time to get her married finally came, no family was ready to accept an ordinary-looking woman as its daughter-in-law. With the latest rejection, Poornima decided to not get married and devote all of her time to work.

Poornima worked as a nurse at a nearby hospital. She was the most-loved nurse there—by patients and the doctors alike. So likable was she that it used to surprise them whenever they heard of families rejecting her. While they lauded her for taking it sportingly every single time, they also felt bad for her in her absence for she didn’t deserve to be treated as such. But little did everyone know that destiny was about to smile on her in its own way in the coming days.

A couple of days had passed since Poornima’s last rejection. Like any other weekday, she reached the hospital at 8 in the morning; however, the ambience seemed different from a regular day at work. Everybody—from the ground staff to the patients and doctors—glanced at her in a weird way when she passed them. Perplexed, she made her way to the ladies’ room. She had just entered the ladies’ room when one of her colleagues informed her that she had been summoned by the head doctor immediately. Hearing this made Poornima worried as to what may have been the reason for being summoned unexpectedly like this.

When she reached the cabin, the doctor was nowhere to be found. As she was about to exit, the ward boy informed her that she was being awaited in the main hall. Confused, even more, she made her way to the main hall. What she saw when she reached her destination left her dumbfounded.

The entire staff had gathered inside the hall and was cheering for her incessantly; even the patients and the ground staff were clapping enthusiastically. Unable to comprehend what was happening, she saw the head doctor making her way across the hall toward her, beaming. Upon reaching where Poornima was standing, she hugged her, and then turned to face the hall and finally disclose the reason for the gathering—Poornima had been promoted to the position of the head nurse of the hospital! She was the youngest in the history of the hospital to be awarded the position and that too within a couple of years of joining. The doctor had barely finished her sentence when the entire hall burst into spurts of praises and applause. 

Poornima couldn't believe what she had just heard. She stood tight-lipped, unaware of her surroundings, as people came to congratulate her one by one. Finally, after the commotion had died down, did reality sink in. As she came back to her senses, Poornima felt her chest swell with pride as thought to herself that she was more than her appearance after all.