On Karen Carpenter

Two days back, I heard on the airwaves a song that I liked immediately- 'On Top Of The World.'

When I next came online, I searched it up on YouTube and came to know that it was by 'The Carpenters' and immediately fell in love with the gorgeous smile of the lady who sang it. So, I searched about her on google too.

Karen Carpenter and her brother Richard were the brother-sister duo who made 'The Carpenters.' And, on the wikipedia article about her, I discovered that Karen had died at merely 32 years, because of Anorexia Nervosa. It's an eating disorder in which the patient diets compulsively to keep her body weight down. The article said that Karen's tragic death shook the world into awareness about this debilitating disease.

I have been feeling sad since then, since yesterday. I had loved 'On Top Of the World' so much! A friend of mine is getting married. I had thought I would gift this song to her.

Today, I went to You Tube again, and listened to the song. And, I read the comments people had given. So many of them were about her tragic death! So many lamented the fact that she had not considered herself beautiful enough and had taken such drastic measures.

I am feeling an ache.

In this special edition video, they have merged the clips of 3 of her performances of 'On Top Of the World.' The first one is about two years before her death, and I felt so sad to see her look so old already (when she was just thirty), with hollow looking cheeks. The second clip, which has her in white gown, is the one that I had seen the day before yesterday, and loved so much! There is such a joy on her face there! It's as if she is actually in love, and the happiness is radiating from her.

The contrast just made me sadder.