My Skin: My Colour

I remember all my life my mother asked me to avoid sun…Tanning !! Is it a Curse !! I grew up hearing don’t expose yourself to sun and I really never cared – Be it the Face – off during my growing years with my colony boys struggling to keep pace with them and not limiting myself to the barbies and kitchen apparatus meant for the little tiny tots…I was sure that my life has to be more than appearance.

Going back to college days, when I had this huge viscous circle of girls debating on cosmetics to boyzzz to movies..i do admit of dreaming too but it was just limited to the good looking NDA ( National Defence Academy ) boys…was I not weird ( Collecting the pics of rifle and tanks )  ??

I have always struggled to get the meaning of Beauty in Indian context because it has always been synonym to Fair Skin. We always knew skin colour played a vital role in the matrimonial market but it then got extended to work place… why just work place .it’s every other place. 

Forget the girls mom standing next to the photographer instructing them to get the photo clicked / edited that was brightest of bright but the marriage broker ensured the same. Obviously the ones who got the brunt of it were the dark skinned girls, no matter how good looking they actually were…Will someone really bother to get into critical aspects like the girls capabilities be it personal or professional, education or intellect..ghosh !! everything just revolves around this so called WHITE colour.

Surprisingly, this obsession of fair skin isn’t really limited to the men’s but women's too wanted fair husband…For girls though it becomes a tough life..They carry this burden.The fate that one needs to struggle hard to get a wheatish or dark skin married.

I realized that this skin color issue isn’t just restricted to matrimonial , they are thrust on our souls !! From where on earth did we coin this term- Wheatish ! It never even appeared in the dictionary. It seems that there’s no one answer for this national obsession, it’s just the way things have always been, and will probably stay for some time to come till we see some revolution in the way we think.

Where and When this revolution breaks is what we can just sit back and wait… will they ever ??

There are million dollar MNC’s surviving on fairness market..TV, the most important medium has always been dominated by ‘ fairness  cream advertisements ‘ ..Joh dikhta hai who bhikta hai and why not !! A 16 year old college student staying in BAREILLY wants to apply fairness cream because her idol Katrina Kaif is successful all thanks to the Fair skin. These Cream Manufacturers have shamelessly given message to the masses that having fairer skin helps a person to be more successful…Fair !! Are we fair in doing so ? That’s a question I guess every celebrity should ask themselves before accepting these kind of advertisements because in India these are not just a celebrity but role model s seen by many. 

With the recent Amitabh Bachhan controversy surrounding Pepsi and the hype surrounding it…Its time we see celebrities take the responsibility of what and why they endorse a particular product.Till then, sit back and relax  and of course think twice before you head out to buy Fairness cream for yourself.