MUNCH! MUNCH! SLURP! GOBBLE!!!

They feast on your insecurities,

Drink up your confidence.

"She is dark, yet pretty!" This is the best compliment a girl with a dusky complexion in India gets, all thanks to the growing obsession to fair skin in India

 Switch on the TV, and  tiny success stories are narrated in the name of ads, telling you how a girls/boys life changed after he/she used a particular fairness cream. You grow fair, and you get successful, people love you more, you get a better job. Without a fair skin, you never get employed and you are doomed to a sad and lonely life; because you are just not good enough! What the corporate sector thinks of you matters because they definitely care about how you live your life.


One particular incident struck me while taking a village survey as a part of our Community Medicine posting- the house did not have a bathroom or a kitchen, seven people were living crammed in one room, the only thing even close to a door was made out of six wooden logs, over which a sac was draped so that people wouldn't see through . They didn't even eat four times a day, because they couldn't afford it (the father was an alcoholic), but they did have a TV (from the government) and a tube of fairness cream.

Such is the impact of this pointless obsession.

Every girl in India, whether fair or dusky uses cosmetic or herbal products to enhance their skin tone. And if she refuses to it, it is forced upon her by her family, nosy aunts or friends. This obsession crosses all boundaries of caste, creed, even education. 

Will you really get better at work and not get lonely?

I fail to think of any way in which a persons skin color can help them fair better in their jobs. Yes, jobs require you to be presentable, confident, well groomed and hardworking. Under which of these does complexion play a role?

About people noticing and loving you more, did your parents or best friends pick you because of the way your skin glows against the moon light? Even if someone did love you because you got fairer, does that mean that he/she will stop loving you if and when you get a tan?

Then there is the other half of the population who give examples of people who have done well 'in spite' of their dark skin color. Since when did a skin tone become a handicap?

You put one toe into the marriage market, and and you hear one question resonating across the walls, echoing, and amplified- "Is she fair?"while they forget to ask the most important question- "Does she have a good sense of hygiene?"

There is absolutely nothing wrong in liking fair skinned people. But there is something very very wrong if you believe that having a dusky complexion narrows down your opportunities. Don't let it define you. 

Your skin tone is a result of your genetic make-up. When people tell you that you are not good enough because of your complexion, they knowingly or unknowingly tell you that your genes are faulty; by implication,  your parents and ancestors. You have every right to lash out at them. Do not show mercy!

I am not preaching the "black is beautiful" concept, but the "everybody is beautiful" theory. Wear clothes that suit your body type, choose good colors, keep yourself well groomed, keep things simple and you are good to go. Those girls you see on TV are clones of clones of clones of someone who someone else thought was beautiful. Tomorrow, if somebody announces that "dusky is the new in thing", you will find those people who chided you, wanting to have your skin tone. These are the people you are asked to please- the ones who forgot how to think somewhere along the line.

Paper white is not the Indian skin tone; neither is dusky skin confined to just the southern part of India. The color of your skin is what you acquired; its not something that was intended to be modified. It is what will help you adapt to the environment- that's what evolution intended it to be; then let it stay at just that!

Maybe by refusing to get fairness treatments done, you may not look like those ceramic dolls that can be kept on shelves and be admired, that repeats whatever it is programmed to, and nothing else.

But what you will be is a walking, talking, thinking human being who is honest about herself;  you'l be surprised- some people actually like honesty!