Not many indians know that rhinoplasty or nasal reconstruction, one of the most in-demand forms of plastic surgery today, was actually first performed by the renowned ayurvedic surgeon Sushruta in the 6th Century BC. The procedure, which has been described in detail in Sushruta Samahita, involved taking a flap of skin from the forehead and using it to reconstruct the nose.

Sushruta evolved this procedure to treat soldiers who had had their noses chopped off during battle. Today rhinoplasty or the ‘nose job’ is an elective procedure, which entices hundreds and thousands of men and women to voluntarily go under the knife. These, however, are not people with disfigured noses. They are people who perceive their noses as disfiguring.

Once upon a time, not so long ago, people guiltily whispered to each other about nose jobs, tummy tucks and face lifts. No more. Body contouring is not just in, it’s actually flauntable. People are happy to show off their contoured bodies, their chiselled features, perfect smiles and returfed scalps. They openly discuss the best place to get your regular dose of botox or boob job done. And they display their tucked tummies, sculpted arms and legs with pride.

Rakhi Sawant, India’s most high profile item number girl, who has often admitted that she has had various parts of her body sculpted, once memorably said on a TV talk show, “Jo diktha hai woh biktha hai.” And that’s the key to the whole issue.
For, it’s not just item number girls who need to have perfect bodies to sell their talents. Aspiring brides, models, actors, TV anchors, Page 3 personalities, ordinary job seekers, politicians — you name them and they could be likely candidates for the knife. Because in today’s lookist world, no one is bothered about the inner self. Beauty is much more than skin deep; it is flesh deep. Or even deeper. Huge gobs of fat are sucked out, other body parts are sewn together, plumped up, lasered and toned in search of perfection.

Procedures like tummy tucks, liposuctions, breast lifts and reductions or augmentations, eyelid tucks, face lifts, microdermabrasions, hair weaves, aesthetic dentistry, botox injections and silicone implants are available for the asking. And these are just a few of them.
A couple of years ago, Franz Gsell, one of Germany‘s most celebrated plastic surgeons picked up Tatjana, a plain, dumpy girl from a backwoods Bavarian town, performed more than 20 operations on her and turned her into what he called the perfect woman. Franz enlarged her breasts from A to C-cup, slimmed her bulbous nose and thickened her lips to a Hollywood pout. Then he dumped his first wife and married his ‘creation’ who was less than half his age. She in turn willingly bared her silicone enhanced breasts to visiting pressmen, and her botoxed face with its plastic smile was on every society page.

But her story doesn’t end there. Eight years into their marriage, she left him for a used car salesman. One year later Franz was killed by some intruders who broke into his flat. The needle of suspicion pointed to his wife, who inherited his huge fortune. Finally, however, she was cleared. Today, she is still floating around, making headline news in the European papers for all the wrong reasons.

So, obviously in the hands of a skilled plastic surgeon anything can happen. Men can be turned into beautiful women. Indeed, in countries like Thailand where this operation is in demand, plastic surgeons have perfected the technique.

In fact, Thailand plastic surgeons have also perfected the art of selling their skills to such an extent that they now offer plastic surgery holiday packages. On such a package, American or Japanese clients, for instance, can have body sculpting done for a fraction of what it would cost in their own country and then recuperate in a beautiful seaside resort for a week. Rhinoplasty or eyelid lifts can be done in an hour and don’t require hospitalisation. Lengthy procedures like liposuction, tummy tucks and face lifting take a couple of hours in the operation theatre, a day or two of hospitalisation and at least a week to recuperate.

Once upon a time, mommies were comfortable creatures with soft bodies and blurred contours. Often they didn’t even bother to look in a mirror because they were mommies who just had to look motherly.

But that was in a different era. Today it‘s Mommy Makeover time. Mommies these days take part in beauty contests and TV shows and dance competitions. They also hold jobs, seek promotions and face clients. Grooming is essential. Also, they have to look good in order to feel good. Dowdy moms are just not cool anymore.