My Fair Lady

On a delightful evening I was sitting with a bunch of people in whose company you could do things as futile as noticing what a TV advertisement has to say. It was then that I realized that I was practically supposed to be an outcast. Reason, I don’t have a skin color that can double up as an emergency light.

Well, I will agree that the bias for fair skin is something that does very often try to lay its hands on my throat. It hasn’t really bothered me much, but yes, honestly it can get on your nerves sometimes. And if you share the shade of my skin but not my indifference, you could be in trouble.


Not surprisingly, some of the most desirable young women in the industry are dusky. I will not take up the gargantuan task of listing their names but yes I would certainly like to appreciate these women, their confidence and their good sense in not wasting time and money on being fair and whatever. Today they are where they are and it speaks loud enough for itself. In fact what does surprise me is the matrimonial. Almost EVERY man is a “good looking boy “with a “handsome salary” and wants “fair”, “slim” and “beautiful” girl. In that case, the mirror cracking material that I am, my chances of getting married are ‘fairly’ ‘slim’. Not that it is matter of concern. But for a lot of women who are melanin rich, life can be hard. 

It does not take a genius to realize that the color of one’s skin or the highness of one’s cheekbone is not one’s sin or virtue. It is not something that one can be blamed of credited for. Beauty is a such a miraculously relative and subjective term that in the world we live, Aishwarya Rai is considered stunning and so is Naomi Campbell.

Frankly I never found my complexion to be a hindrance in my way, and I am sure that no woman does until she faces those well meaning souls that judge her by set standards of beauty that God knows who sets. Who in order to make her life better burry her in a grave of besan, uptan, and the umpteen number of  white and pink tubes. What finally comes out is a woman who will never be confident to walk out in the sun no matter how enchanting her eyes, or how mesmerizing her smile.  And no matter how loved or appreciated she is for the person that is her, that cream will continue to haunt her, as would its manufacturers.

We are a set of people who have fought racial discrimination since a long time. Even now we complain about it when we venture out in The White Man’s Land. But even that guy who has been beaten up by a bunch of white men when studying abroad wants a fair and lovely white, sorry, I meant wife. Does that not demean our entire set of upright principles we keep boasting about?

It is beautiful to be fair, but it is as beautiful to be dark, and what really needs to be beautiful is the person that we are in our hearts. Today you hate the fair Bin Laden (Justin Beiber for a few of us), as much as you love the dark A.R. Rehman /Nelson Mandela/ Desmond Tutu /Nat King Cole / Stevie Wonder....
 I take an example with men, because now they haven’t been spared either. (refer to the hideous "HI HANDSOME" PEHELWAN WITH NAIL POLISH,  AND LIPISHTIK ADD )

As for the fairness cream people, guys you really need to go through a reality check.  Seriously, your towering claims that a girl has the right to live only when she is vampire white are stuff of stand up comedy. You need to work harder with your creative team. And for fairness’ sake, grow up.

As for me, I am pretty comfortable to be me. My mother thinks I am pretty and so do my best friends. My mirror really does not crack at my sight and my dog loves me like hell. Other than that, nothing else seems to bother much. And it shouldn’t bother you too. You are beautiful the way you are and it’s in your own skin that you will grow best. For in all honesty, you really are a woman/man phenomenally.

We and India

Winston Churchill had famously remarked “INDIA is a geographical term. It is no more a united nation than the equator.” But Mr. Churchill could have scarcely imagined that this “geographical term” led by a ‘half naked fakir’ could emerge to become one of the fastest growing economies in the world.  Today, a powerful and recognized nation, we see India come and take a stand on the global power front, shedding its image of the pariah. Of course, Indians have a reason to be proud.

But the bitter reality is that today we ought to be more ashamed than we can ever be proud. On the national front, the disappointment has been overwhelming. Yes, the common man is disillusioned and frustrated with the amount of fiascos, scams and corruption related issues that have monopolized the headlines of his newspaper in the recent months. But he also well realizes the fact that he is as much a part of it as the entity he chooses to blame. Yet, there is hardly anything he can do about it. He cannot choose to shun his liabilities in order to be honest and upright. He does not intend to ruin his nation or bring it to shame, but only to live a comfortable life which doesn’t come at a small price. His needs and expenditures often overtake his earnings. Family pressures and ambitious plans often make him take a turn which the book of ethics and morals shuns. He wants to provide the best to his family and why should he not opt for the obvious means when everybody else is opting for it. He wouldn’t have time to spare to think about the long term implications of his trivial act and on a trillion dollar economy.

The root cause of the problem lies in the fact that India and her people have become two separate identities. An aam admi can hardly ever bother about the troubled state of affairs of the government beyond drawing room discussions. The best he can do is blame and criticize. His daily struggle stuffs him up to leave little space for food for thought. When his loans give him sleepless nights, when compromises become his only choice, when he is not able to send his child abroad for higher education, then Hasan Ali becomes a subject of envy instead of spite. In the process India merely becomes his nationality to fill up forms.

Consequently, the disaster  seems to be  a result of a cascade of events which stem from the basic human want of being secure. The lament is that he can never be secure enough. That is where the government is to accept its responsibility in the state of affairs. It hasn’t been able to provide social and financial security to its people, which is one of its fundamental objectives. It hasn’t been able to convince a nation that it is a nation. Till disparity will exist, greed will exist, hate and communalism will exist. And disparity exists because it is allowed and encouraged to exist. And no amount of fasts and mass gatherings and anti corruption bills will solve the problem. It is that tree whose roots have penetrated much deeper than we can comprehend. What is disturbing is that we are not too far from the point of no return.

We need to realize is that we are not Indians only when India wins the World Cup or when A certain US president praises us for having already emerged, but also when Commonwealth Games threaten to be a shameful debacle, and when the country tops the list of black money holders in foreign banks or when a poverty index indicates that there are more poor people in eight states of India then the twenty six poorest African countries. It is high time we stop blaming and criticizing and take up our responsibility to clean our share of mess. This is surely not what we want to gift our children as legacy. For long we have been a part of the problem. It is high time we become a part of the solution.