u/Child_of_destiny99

I have JUST started planning my wedding and I was looking at MUAs on instagram. One thing I found was that regardless of the function, complexion, colors of the lehenga - every single bridal MUA is doing the same look. Green/Brown Contacts, Gold/brown eyeshadow with black liner, fake lashes and Coral Blush packed on. I see zero versatility in looks and its the same look for every single day and every single function.

I am also hearing that most MUAs are refusing make-up trials now - which I definitely do not understand.

Anyone know any good MUAs (India - ideally around delhi) who do offer versatile looks as well and won't eat up my entire budget? (mods if asking for vendors isn't allowed, do let me know, I'll edit the post).

Does anyone else feel politically homeless lately because I genuinely do not know where I belong anymore and every political conversation feels like you are being forced to join a fan club instead of actually thinking critically. If you criticize the government people assume you are anti national or secretly rooting for the opposition and if you criticize the opposition suddenly you are a bhakt and it is so exhausting because what if I just want better from everyone involved.

I care about democracy and freedom of speech and rising intolerance and media capture and communal polarization and honestly all of it scares me a lot but at the same time I also do not trust a lot of opposition parties because so many of them feel opportunistic and spineless and corrupt in their own ways. It feels like there is no space left for nuance anymore. Everybody wants blind loyalty and outrage and constant performance and I am just tired.

Sometimes I genuinely think comedians and satirists are the only people articulating what a lot of us are feeling because at least they acknowledge how absurd everything has become. Reading headlines these days genuinely feels like flipping through The Onion except nobody is joking and somehow every week things get even more bizarre. The rest of the political ecosystem just feels like nonstop propaganda and emotional manipulation from every direction possible.

And maybe this sounds dramatic but I really do think a lot of educated urban Indians especially women are feeling this weird political isolation where you are hyper aware of what is happening around you but also deeply disillusioned by all the available choices. Voting increasingly feels like choosing between worse and the worst and then being expected to aggressively defend your choice like it was some perfect moral decision.

I do not know what the answer is honestly. I just know I am tired of feeling like independent thinking itself has become suspicious.

Our families decided to ambush us into a roka WHEN he was actively planning a proposal and now it's ruined the future proposal for me. I don't even really care anymore if he does it when this is something I wanted from the beginning of our relationship. They took a special moment away from us and its really gotten me miffed. Now I don't even care how he does it, I told him to just reserve a nice restaurant and be done with it. What was supposed to be a happy moment will forever be marred by both our parents snatching our agency, forcing us into the most awkward roka ceremony for the sake of it.

I, a person who cares about little things like dressing right for the occasion, the venues, the decor, the little things - wore jeans to my roka. Jeans and a linen shirt. Everyone else was dressed for the occasion but since I didn't have clothes (my family traveled to his town to meet them), I was in JEANS.

I hate myself for caring about these small things but it was a little thing that I had asked our parents for. Please give us time to plan our proposal and do things our way. Yet, they couldn't.

So when they ask me how I feel about this. I am annoyed. I am not happy. I wanted to be happy about getting engaged but it feels like that's been ruined.