Beautiful is not Expensive. Beautiful is Love.

Ru Tyagi
Ru Tyagi
Jul 20, 2017 · 3 min read
Picture courtesy: My dear photographer friend Sriram.

It was only the last week, when one of my dear writer friends told me that she may soon buy a couple of decent, expensive things to make her home beautiful. She believes that the old furniture [including the book shelf], the TV set, and the typewriter that are kept in her room make it look a bit lifeless. And, it was only then I told her that beautiful is not expensive; beautiful is love.

The words just came out of my mouth, for I value her fairly large, wooden athenaeum and the old typewriter, which once belonged to her grandfather, the more. I admire how much she loves her books and how pleasant she writes, all the time. Each piece of her poetry and published work is inspiring.

However, later I realised that the words I spoke were amazingly eloquent. Indeed expensive is not always meant to be beautiful — to make one feel beautiful; you can SHOWER LOVE THAN SPEND MONEY. Rich, acquisitive materials that may turn any room into a five-star chamber would not actually add grace and warmth to it unless we buy those or someone gifts them to us with absolute love. Any gift that you send to a friend on birthday is never the price-tag but the thought behind picking it and sweats put into sending it across.

Albeit the bright, inspirational collection of books on the shelf; the photo frame that flaunts the picture of three siblings smiling together, an old age sand clock, and an antique brass model gramophone kept beside the TV on the table; and well covered clean bed which again has heap of books on it; my friend believes that the room is not enough beautiful. I mean, what else you need to make a place welcoming…full of warmth?! I am sure that the smell of books would suffice to fill the soul of the room with affection and the smiles on the people’s faces in picture frames would serve it with vivacity.

Isn’t it that only when we look around, we discern that the things that make us all happy, feel beautiful from within are not expensive at all?! Right from the morning when the sun shines through the grove and then through the hollows of curtains into our rooms until the night when the silence cuddles us into trance, the things that go unappreciated are able enough to kiss away our qualms and apprehensions. The smile on a child’s face when you blow balloons with him, the expressions of care in the eyes of your beloved, or the healing touch of a mother’s embrace are all the most beautiful things on earth that cost NOTHING.

These words ‘beautiful is not expensive; beautiful is love’ do remind me of another story that I read on TheNEWSMinute, last year. This beautiful (again) story is about the couple Vijayan and his wife Mohana who own only a small Sree Balaji Coffee House in Kerela and yet possess the courage to follow their passion of travelling to countries across the globe. Only by following the simple habit of saving around rupees 300 a day for tickets, they cherish their near to impossible dream making everyone believe in miracles that are rather beautiful than expensive… Probably it is their love and not the wealth, which gave them the power to pursue the dream that many would dread, if they would own a little tea shop!

The words, in fact, also reminded me of one of my favourite quotes: ‘I’d rather wear flowers in my hair than diamonds around my neck.’ True that! Even a rose gifted by someone with sheer love smells more beautiful than a twinkling gemstone that may be worth millions, if gifted only to make someone faint beneath its weight. Or, if I may put this as a short romantic tale: ‘He gifted her the Ruby. She smiled faintly. She was thinking about the man who got her the Rose.

Disclaimer: This was originally posted on my LinkedIn Profile by me, last year! :)

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