Pinyin kept chewing. When you have to eat 20 Kgs of bamboo a day to survive, it’s a good idea to keep those cheek muscles moving. She was also thinking hard. The forests of Gansu had decided to hold a beauty contest and she was desperate to take part.
She had looked at her reflection in the water that morning, one tubby hand placed on a wholesome hip and she had to say she was a knockout. With the help of her modified sesamoid bone (thumb to the unscientific) she plucked a bamboo flower and placed it fetchingly behind her black ear. Awww, pwreetee. Then she marched to register for the contest.
A wren who was taking entries tittered when Pinyin gave her name. Pinyin was so outraged, she demanded an immediate explanation for the mocking. The wren, who had a Chinese-British accent, in haughty tones told her in the history of the world nobody with dark circles had ever won a a beauty pageant.
Pinyin had a stubborn streak. You would too, if all you did was eat one type of food 16 hours a day. She knew what sticking to plan meant. She ignored the wren and walked off haughtily, swaying her hips in that enchanting beauty queen way.
Once she was out of sight she began to bawl. After the tears subsided, she looked at the two large tear-shaped black circles around her eyes and wondered how to make it white. She tried crushing the white petals of a Paeonia Rockii and smeared it around her eyes. Nothing happened. She got an itch and the jet black of her fur peered inconsiderately, behind the mutilated petals.
Then she tried pulling her white fur (Ow, Ow, Ow) and sticking it with forest sap onto the black circles around her eyes. It hung in clumps and she looked like she had an acute attack of mange. She washed her face in the clear running stream and looked at her beautiful self.
The wren must be a bird brain she thought darkly, for why else would it think this sweet, charming, friendly face looked ugly. Yes, this panda was a Leo with an Aries ascendant and had no self esteem issues whatsoever. She stared some more at her gorgeous self, huffed twice, barked thrice, growled four times and made her decision.
She would take part in the beauty pageant with her dark circles. Not only that, she would accentuate her circles and make them the most striking feature of her face. She found a bit of burnt wood and smeared the coal on her dark rings, deepening it into a blackness found only at night in bat caves.
The pageant had begun and the animals were gliding past the judges, their gait trying to be graceful and glamorous. Pinyin lumbered over and stood in front of them. A Nodding Lilac was behind her ear and her eyes glittered from their dark orbs. There was something stunning about this contrast in black and white.
Her winning answer is still a legend in the Gansu forest -’A panda symbolises peace for we have the yin and yang in us. The black and the white are contrasts, which co-exist in harmony, in beauty’. As she sashayed away with the trophy (A cluster of bamboo shoots) the judgemental wren hid its face in its quivering wing.
Moral: Accentuate your ugliness to make it beautiful
Pinyin is drawn by the fabulous Bijoy Venugopal. You can find more of his wonderful stuff here bijoyvenugopal.com
NothingBeastlyAboutIt 