India, April 24 -- You know the summer holidays are around the corner when fashion and lifestyle magazines start running features with headlines like: "Get your beach body back in four weeks" or "How to get bikini ready in 10 easy steps". These articles follow a well-trodden path offering banal advice like "lay off the carbs" or "do a hundred squats a day" or even "go on a liquid diet for the next month" and so on. (These days much the same sort of stuff is pushed at us by "fitfluencers" on Instagram as well.)

In my younger and more foolish days, I am ashamed to admit, I used to fall for this sort of casual body-shaming. I would devour all these pieces, try and follow at least some of the tips, dieting and exercising like my life depende...