If you run a search online on “love handles”, the first few pages will only tell you how to get rid of them. Is that fair?

What harm has that bit of excess fat around or below the waist done? If the body is not unhealthy or obese, why this urgent need to get rid of a fuller curve or an extra one? It is the psychopathology of a culture fixated on the perfect body shape that was probably moulded in plastic.

The phrase “love handles” is one of recent origin, dictionaries agree, and it obviously refers to the shape of the bulges around the waist. They are handy, literally, as they help you to hold the person you love. And they don’t come in anyone else’s way. So why should everyone be urged to get rid of them with exercise and diet?

Besides, when there is a little more of you, there is a little more of you to hold as well. That should be a nice thought.

And think what would happen if there was no belly fat. What would happen to belly dance? What would happen to classic Bollywood songs? To Bindu singing Hangama ho gaya? Or Mumtaz in her famous sari dress shaking to Aaj kal tere mere pyar ke charche?

A glimpse of their pretty little love handles makes for a lot of loveliness.