A Little Talk on Heightism

In a world of agelasts, political-ninjas and popinjays here comes another noteworthy species: The heightists. According to the Urban Dictionary a heightist is "Someone who believes that people are superior to or inferior to others on account of their respective heights, or that people of differing heights have different moral qualities and intellectual capabilities." Food for thought, isn’t it, but before reading my ideas on the subject check out this hilariously somber article featured in the Times of India: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/opinion/edit-page/Living-with-heightism/articleshow/5739630.cms 

Now, let us discuss this knew known fact (?) that people with good heights are indeed the living ambrosias who are more successful in life than the less tall ones. Is it true that in this new era gazebo people will good physical stature are given the first class tickets? If so, then what would happen to us, the normal ones?  Are short people doomed forever in the world where there soon will be a reservation for tall and really tall people much like the SC and ST reservations we have in educational institutions. The problem may not be that threatening, but it surely has some emotional connotation.  It is indeed true that people with less perfect features suffer from deep distress. That explains why women who think they are fat spend at least one hour in a day before mirrors examining their physical shape or people go to plastic surgeons to get a nose job. The fact is we are never happy the way we are, and often morph into jealous bad girls. Now, I know many of you would thrash my idea and say no, I don’t do this, I am pure at heart, but let's face it we are all humans and we all have complexes. I believe, it is this innate human sense of complexity that brought into light idiosyncratic beliefs that people with good heights are deemed to be more successful than shorter folks.

When I was  in school I sported a height of 5 feet four and a half inches. For an average Bengali girl in her early teens that was an eccentric number; a number which made my mother dubious about my possibilities of finding a groom for myself. At standard nine I was way taller than my girly girlfriends and I was evidently jealous of their small heights. My height was an indelible mark on my name, I known as the tall girl with specs; however intellectually perfect that might sound, I never managed to be the numero uno student in class. And talk about romanticism, all the guys of my age were romantically bent on my shorter friends. At thirteen the worldly truth dawned on me that my height would spell the doom. Later, of course against the better judgment of my acarpous fate, I managed to find my prince charming and I can't tell you how happy I was when I found out that he was a few inches taller than me.  A match made in heaven I thought and tied the connubial knot. Thus, to me my acromegalic features had been a book of bad memories. Many of you may say that a good height comes with great advantages; yes, true, the advantage of towering over a sea of people is great, the advantage of never being ignored when in a conversation is great, but ultimately isn’t all that matters is the quality of conversation that I am into rather than my physical presence in it. Also, shorter people are cuter than their taller counterparts --don’t you find that Amir Khan or Tom Cruise cuter than say, Abhishek Bacchan or Johnny Depp?

A study of the business arena and the global market would definitely show evidences that successful tall people have been at the helm of successful companies, that actors with good heights bag the best film roles or the best looking girlfriends. Such dubious talks would always linger in the society, and even if you and I may ignore their presence, we cannot deny them altogether. The most important thing is probably to feel good and confident the way we are. I believe that positive energy and positive virtue takes a person up the ladder of success. We may encounter a series of quirky looks and quirky questions from quirky people who would be more interested in our physical appeal rather than our intelligence and handwork; such people would always be there, however, we must always strive not to take them seriously. Ultimately, there has never been an instance in history when a person has succeeded in life just because of his grand physical attributes.

 Barnali Saha