Try as you might, the human face cannot mask its age

The secret to looking young past one's youth may lie not in sculpting one's face but altering others' eyesight

- MANU JOSEPH

When a man dies on a treadmill, people mutter that it's nature's warning against physical exertion. When a woman dies after injecting a potion of youth, it is market publicity for the product.

A few days ago, actor Shefali Jariwala died of a cardiac arrest. There is speculation that her cardiac arrest was triggered by an injection of vitamin C and glutathione following a prolonged fast. There has since been a middle-class discussion about the dangers of these beauty rituals. People even dragged poor Botox into it. You may think these products would now be considered toxic. But I suspect the episode has opened new market segments for such products.

People want to look young. If at all people want to be young, it is chiefly to look young. That's odd because I knew many of them when they were young and they didn't look that great even then. In any case, this is a central obsession of the world—to look young. But the pursuit is doomed. People stubbornly look their age. It's 2025 and there is nothing science can do about it. There are clues to this all around.

When I was watching the latest Mission: Impossible movie, the moment Tom Cruise appeared on the screen, and it was a close shot if I am not mistaken, some people gasped. It was a sad gasp. He looked old, and they were surprised. He marked their youth, after all, and has been marking their time. Tom Cruise only looked his age: early 60s.