Colours…

Many of these TV matrimonial shows (regional languages) have the parents of the groom or the would-be groom making a list of requirements of the new entrant into their lives. They have simple wants – It does not matter if the girl works or not, she just has to take care of the guy’s parents as her own, be slim and fair! You might think only traditional families have such wants, but I have heard ‘well-educated’ men working in big MNCs having the same requests. First of all, the idea of having a matrimonial show on TV itself irks me, but that’s another thing altogether.

Taking care of the guy’s parents as the girl’s own is not a bad thing to expect. Wanting only slim girls is again another issue. Man how many thoughts arise when one sits to write…

My issue here is the idea of someone being eligible to tie the knot based on colour! Enough and more arguments, wars etc have been fought regarding this issue but this is never ending. If you are fair, you’re the chosen one always and we somehow have got into the mode of accepting this. Apparently when I was born, I was quite dark and the minute my grandmother saw me, she was very unhappy that I took over my mother who is slightly dark and not my dad who is extremely fair! Though I did not take it seriously, till date I tease my grandmother, who is fair, about the fact that her husband is extremely dark and she actually agreed to marry him in spite of having colour reservations!

I can’t blame her because we were instilled with such thoughts that the fair are good and the dark-skinned, bad. Our holy books also feature demons as dark skinned ones. Our own moon walker had a range of surgeries to change his colour but personally I thought he was charmer with his original looks.

Then came some change! Our South Indian superstar, Rajinikanth redefined the outlook to being a dark-skinned one! Songs in praise of being dark-skinned, in wanting to be dark-skinned rushed the screen! Our Indian Michael Jackson, Prabhu Deva and many other actors in other languages who were not the fair-lot began taking away the prized top roles! Other than the Ms World pageants I quite cannot think of any show awarding dark-skinned women!

Then again came the fairness ads! First for women who were low on confidence just because they weren’t fair and a tube gives it all in a matter of fifteen days! Whoa! I used to wonder what about the poor, not so-fair men! And lo! My feelings answered straight away in the form of men’s fairness creams! The worst thing is, these famous actors and actresses who fight for causes like animal protection and saving the environment end up advocating colour bias!

How did Queen Latifah and the King of Pop survive? Bipasha Basu must remind her boy friend John that she is a dusky damsel after all! And Mr Dhoni seems to have a large fan following in spite of his not-so fair looks!

Before writing this blog, I was doing a search on dark-skinned people being featured in commercials. It is said that during early days in the U.S.A., dark-skinned were featured only to show that they were also the ‘targeted’ population for the product and there was no discrimination.

But then again, the cycle has to be complete. The recent rediff.com ad did bring smiles to my face. Frankly, being tuned to watching fair skins on commercials, I was taken aback. But it was a pleasant surprise indeed.

Another thought: Men always want fair women, but why do most women when asked about their dream man say 'Tall and DARK'??