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Is there size zero?

Skin deep? Dr. Mohan Thomas, cosmetic surgeon: "Cosmetic surgery alone cannot change one’s life”

There are no qualms about the fact that mental confidence and upbringing are far more superior to outer beauty in terms of overall personality development.

Then why did Kareena Kapoor’s look in the movie “Tashan” ignite a debate over the ‘size-zero’ body? Is it right for young girls to deprive themselves to attain a figure that is almost unrealistic and extremely harmful for the body?

Well the answer is an emphatic ‘No’. According to Dr. Mohan Thomas, a cosmetic surgeon and the Medical Director of the Cosmetic Institute of India, there is nothing like a size zero. It is more of hype rather than a debate. “Beauty is an aura, an attitude and cannot be defined by size. If you don’t have a size zero shirt, or a size zero shoe, you can definitely not have a size zero body,” he says.

Dr. Thomas is the cosmetic consultant at the Miss India Pageant 2008. “Nobody is born perfect!” he says, “The bar is set much higher in such pageants and competition is very stiff. We consult on face and body design. We advise them on building proportionate bodies with soft lines as disproportionate bodies draw more attention,” adds Dr. Thomas, who is also a Clinical Professor of Surgery at the Mount Sinai/NYU School of Medicine.

He says, “The younger generation seeks procedures like rhinoplasty, breast augmentation, male breast reduction and liposuction.

Facial sculpting is another pioneering surgical option. Middle aged people are more interested in age-defying treatments like tummy tuck, facial rejuvenation surgery, arm tuck, breast lift, etc. Botox, fillers, and ultra shape fat reduction are non-surgical options but provide subtle and temporary improvement”

Taruna Upadhyaya, a working professional, all of 25, maintains quite a figure herself. Completely against the concept of size zero, she feels it is ‘SOS- skin on skeleton’. “It is like having a glamorous mannequin. A woman has her beauty in her curves and proportions,” she opines.

Dr. Thomas has a number of visitors waiting to attain the perfect figure. But he doesn’t treat all of them. Many of his patients are obsessed. “I bear a professional, moral and legal responsibility towards all my patients and need them to be mature enough.

I don’t treat patients who are either obsessed or depressed,” he says. “Cosmetic surgery alone cannot change one’s life. To look good, one must feel good ,” opines Dr. Thomas.

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