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कहीं किसी शहर में साधारण शक्ल-सूरत की एक लड़की रहती थी जो खूबसूरत बनना चाहती थी. एक तरह से देखें तो वह खूबसूरत तो थी… उसके बाल सुनहरी भूरे थे, चेहरे पर ताज़गी थी और वह बड़ा मोहक मुस्कुराती थी. लेकिन दूसरी लड़कियों को देखकर उसे जलन होती थी क्योंकि वह उनकी तरह भड़कीली नहीं दिखती थी. एक दिन उसने यह तय कर लिया कि वह भी दूसरी लड़कियों की तरह सुन्दर बनकर दिखाएगी.

कोशिश तो उसने बहुत की लेकिन वह और खूबसूरत नहीं बन सकी. इस सच्चाई ने उसके दिल-ओ-दिमाग में उदासी और निराशा घर कर दी.

(मार्क एजमोन की कहानी – A story of Mark Edgemon – in Hindi)

There was a normal looking girl who wanted to be beautiful. She was beautiful in a way with her light brown hair, fresh natural face and a pleasant smile. But she was jealous of other girls, who looked more glamorous, and she decided to find ways of making herself more beautiful.

But no matter how hard she tried, she could never look more attractive and this reality caused her great sadness and disappointment.

One day, she decided to find a surgeon who could alter her appearance by placing a layer of plastic over her face, which could be molded in such a way to give her the look she wanted. This had never been done before and so it took a team of surgeons to perform the surgery. They invented a type of plastic that could be grafted to the skin and shaped within the first hour of its application, but afterwards would remain permanent.

When the surgeons were finished everyone was amazed. She looked like a doll. Not to say she was attractive. Well, she was in an artificial looking way, but she had the appearance of a store bought doll. Her facial skin was smooth and was hard like glass.

She was in the media spotlight for days after her transformation. The whole world was interested in this girl’s miraculous change. No one really thought this new look was an improvement; as a matter of fact, most people thought she was hideous. But everyone pretended that she looked beautiful and to like the emperor’s new clothes. No one ever said anything to the contrary.

No handsome young men ever dated her; no homely ones did either. She grew old and her skin began to wrinkle everywhere, except her face.

One sad and depressing day, she died of loneliness and no one came to her funeral. She had long since been interesting and the only thing she had to show for her life was a wrinkled body of skin, hidden by an artificial, hard shell mask that covered her face. Since no one attended her funeral, the minister shut the coffin lid and buried her, bypassing the funeral service altogether.

What she never realized was that she had sparked a trend and now many women had hard shell masks instead of their natural looking faces and everybody pretended that this change was beautiful and so it was widely accepted throughout the world. Everybody played the game and so no one was ever the wiser … literally.