I grew up in the lovely emerald state of Kerala in southern India during the sixties and seventies.

The ideal of womanly pulchritude there in those days was derived (believe it or not!) from the ancient Indian classics which described a beautiful woman as having haunches that resembled those of an elephant and who was so buxom that there was no space for even a straw to pass between her ample breasts.

And what did I look like? I was 5'7" tall and weighed about 50 kg...tall slim and leggy!

Kind old ladies used to sigh heavily when they saw me and tell my mother to try and fatten me up if she ever wanted to get me off her hands.

But try as she would, nothing would ever make me put on weight....I remained stubbornly thin. I could eat the richest of pastries or the oiliest of Indian snacks...my weight remained constant.

Till I hit my thirties. After my babies were born I started getting fatter...and fatter.
I'm now comfortably plump. (No, I not saying how much exactly!).

But alas I'm not fashionable. Tastes in India have changed drastically. With globalisation and and western influence, slim, tall and leggy is in!

Unless saggy, baggy and wrinkled come into fashion in, say another ten years time, I don't have a hope of ever being with it!