First, it was a trickle. Now, it threatens to be a flood. No, I am not talking about pre-poll sops. I’m talking about spectacles. You know, those unfortunate devices that kind of foist themselves on us? Those nasties that most people, especially women, would rather not wear?

And yet, astonishingly, the confounded things seem to be everywhere these days — the sleek black number perched on Preity Zinta’s charming nose in Kal Ho Naa Ho (KHNH), the clunky glasses sported by television’s near-iconic Jassi, the itsy-bitsy ones flaunted by models on the catwalk. Even Prerna, the heroine of a sob-a-minute soap from the Ektaa Kapoor stable, has done the unthinkable and taken to wearing specs.

Call it a minor miracle. For, up until now, our mass media had pretty stringent rules when it came to spectacles. They were okay on smart little boys. They were fine on geeky young men. They were just the thing for guys with that caring, sensitive air — guys like the one played by Shah Rukh Khan in Mohabbatein — soulful, artistic and naturally, bespectacled. And, of course, they were the perfect accessories for benevolent grannies rooting for herbal shampoo or gripe water.

But specs and attractive young women? Not on your life! Never, oh never, could you go so far as to show a young woman with that kind of facial furniture. It was a huge turn-off, guaranteed to make her look stroppy and intimidating. It was simply not done.

In deference to that golden rule, women in showbiz have always avoided glasses like the plague. There have been odd dissenters here and there.

Kajol is frequently seen sporting glasses. Twenty-four-year-old singing sensation Norah Jones doesn’t mind being photographed in them either. But by and large, this “glass ceiling” had remained pretty much intact so far. The male of the species could go through. So could elderly females. The rest, if they knew what was good for them, steered clear. And opted for contact lenses.

Our female movie stars wouldn’t be caught dead in them “four eyes”. The only time they donned glasses was when they needed to grow old for a role. Ditto for television’s leading ladies. And as for advertising, that other great arbiter of public taste, whether a woman was prancing around a washing machine or looking cock-a-hoop over a particular brand of chana masala, she certainly didn’t do it wearing her short sight on her nose.

So you’ll forgive me if I got more than a little excited by this recent, and quite unprecedented, crop of bespectacled female leads on the big and the small screen. Wow, I thought, talk about a triple whammy! Here were the characters of Preity Zinta, Jassi and Prerna, all young and attractive (okay, I know Jassi isn’t supposed to be a bombshell but she is unquestionably the leading lady) and they were all sporting glasses! How radical is that? Are we finally ready to set the politics of glasses on its head? And diss all that stuff about “boys don’t make passes at girls who wear glasses?”

These characters certainly seem to knock the bottom out of that concept. Zinta, specs and bad temper notwithstanding, is coveted by two handsome hunks in KHNH. Somewhat bafflingly perhaps, Prerna too has a couple of guys mooning over her. And, of course, it is only a matter of time before the cerebral and super-efficient Jassi gets her man.

Sanjay Tekchandani, who designed Zinta’s glasses in KHNH, says that even now, two months after the movie was released, he is inundated with requests for that particular frame. So maybe, women in glasses are about to become the new face of cool. Maybe geek (feminine geek, that is,) will soon be chic.

Why not? After all, thin was considered ugly once upon a time. What’s to prevent glasses from undergoing a similar cultural shift?

As a long-time spectacle-wearer, I must confess that I have always dreamed of witnessing such a day. I have silently applauded Kajol when she turned up in specs at a glittering awards night. I have loved Saif Ali Khan for almost always wearing his glasses off screen.

And I was delighted when fashion designer Sabyasachi showed off his vibrant creations on models who wore severe, black-rimmed glasses. More power to us obstinate band of female “speckies”, I exulted, each time a celeb bucked the trend and dared to wear.

But there is such a thing as letting your enthusiasm get ahead of yourself. Cut to the aforementioned troika (i.e., Zinta in KHNH, Prerna and Jassi) and you’ll see what I mean. On closer inspection, the euphoria over their “spectacular” act of self-definition seems a trifle misplaced.

For, Zinta jettisons her glasses the moment she falls in love, as if to say that love and glasses are hopelessly incompatible somehow. Prerna makes a habit of pushing hers onto her head, which, as any seasoned myop will tell you, may be fine as a hair accessory, but is not much good otherwise. And Jassi … well, you needn’t be a seer to know that her specs will be among the first things to go when she finally blossoms into a beauty.

So here’s the new and improved politics of glasses for you: yes, a woman may wear them for that touch of cerebral cool. Yes, that may even be considered sexy up to a point. But strictly, up to a point. The bottom line is that glasses are a prop, a sort of a symbol of a certain attitude or a state of mind. They may be here today, but they must be gone tomorrow. Ultimately, a woman must cast them off and emerge afresh — her brains intact perhaps, but her bad temper, self-absorption and lack of sartorial savvy dispelled forever.

Well, is that so bad? Not at all. Let mass media have its shibboleths. Let cinema and television fine-tune their rules about women in glasses. It is enough that they have taken the horror out of showing women with specs.

Who knows, with so much forward-thinking from the makers of our movies and TV serials, we may soon have a carefully calibrated set of rules about men in glasses as well. Now that would be a day worth waiting for.