This write up was published in the DNA newspaper in October 2006.
Being dark-skinned unlike all my sisters who are fair-skinned , I have often been asked whether I am really their sister.Thankfully, my parents never made any distinction among us.No one should.
The world is full of colour.Nature has bestowed the flora and fauna with colours.Humans too have been painted in different colours which,from time to time, have been a bane.Beauty is skin-deep they say,but a person's skin colour has, many a time been a boon or a curse.Ask me,I have experienced it.
Even today after all these years,we Indians are over-awed with white skin.Read all the matrimonials and see it in black and white....Wanted-fair,slim and beautiful girl.Fair skin is a pre-requisite for beauty,it seems .As a teacher I have seen children who are fairer being chosen for dances and skits over the dark-skinned counter parts just on the basis of their fair skin. At times when I have chosen talented children for their dancing and acting abilities I have been questioned on my selection if they are dark-skinned,."You are taking her???Why don't you take her?" they say pointing towards a fairer child.This coming from teachers,utterly disgraceful and sad .Of course,their suggestions are not taken and I go on with my preference.Talent ,after all, should be the only criteria for selection.
Earlier I travelled from Kalwa to my school in Mulund by train.I held a first class travelling train pass.On one of my many journeys a lady boarded the train at Thane.her. Her entry brought on many curious glances from the others in the first class compartment.The lady in question was dark-skinned and simply dressed.One of the women gathered courage and said," माफ़ कीजिये,ये फर्स्ट क्लास का डिब्बा है,सेकंड क्लास डिब्बा आगे है" The woman in question was unruffled.Giving her a dirty look she displayed her first class quarterly pass and said, "Yes,I know that.I have a first class pass.Did you think that only fair-skinned people with expensive clothes and thick make-up can buy a first class pass?? आप माफ़ कीजिये और अपनी सोच बदलिए ."On hearing this interaction I just wanted to clap and cheer her for her apt response!
One of my colleagues rues the fact her kid who is dark-skinned is always taunted by close family members for his colour.What a terrible way to hurt someone's self esteem!My husband is quite fair and was handsome when I married him(not that he isn't now!).I am much darker than him.One day one of my sisters who is quite fair herself jokingly asked him," How did you agree to marry her,she is so dark?"To this my hubby replied,"My father was very fair and my mother was dark-skinned yet he married her.She was a gem of a person.After my fathers untimely death when I and my siblings were very young ,my mother brought us up single-handedly and instilled all the right values in us One's colour is not important,it's what inside us that really counts,."
It is high time that we learn to live without the prejudices of colour. The world is already reeling under the barriers of caste,religion,class,language and race.We surely don't want to add colour to that ,do we??Let us teach our children to have unbiased views of persons without being influenced by colour or any other attributes.Let us learn to value people for what they are and not their skin colour. After all,we should remember that beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder.
Being dark-skinned unlike all my sisters who are fair-skinned , I have often been asked whether I am really their sister.Thankfully, my parents never made any distinction among us.No one should.
The world is full of colour.Nature has bestowed the flora and fauna with colours.Humans too have been painted in different colours which,from time to time, have been a bane.Beauty is skin-deep they say,but a person's skin colour has, many a time been a boon or a curse.Ask me,I have experienced it.
Even today after all these years,we Indians are over-awed with white skin.Read all the matrimonials and see it in black and white....Wanted-fair,slim and beautiful girl.Fair skin is a pre-requisite for beauty,it seems .As a teacher I have seen children who are fairer being chosen for dances and skits over the dark-skinned counter parts just on the basis of their fair skin. At times when I have chosen talented children for their dancing and acting abilities I have been questioned on my selection if they are dark-skinned,."You are taking her???Why don't you take her?" they say pointing towards a fairer child.This coming from teachers,utterly disgraceful and sad .Of course,their suggestions are not taken and I go on with my preference.Talent ,after all, should be the only criteria for selection.
Earlier I travelled from Kalwa to my school in Mulund by train.I held a first class travelling train pass.On one of my many journeys a lady boarded the train at Thane.her. Her entry brought on many curious glances from the others in the first class compartment.The lady in question was dark-skinned and simply dressed.One of the women gathered courage and said," माफ़ कीजिये,ये फर्स्ट क्लास का डिब्बा है,सेकंड क्लास डिब्बा आगे है" The woman in question was unruffled.Giving her a dirty look she displayed her first class quarterly pass and said, "Yes,I know that.I have a first class pass.Did you think that only fair-skinned people with expensive clothes and thick make-up can buy a first class pass?? आप माफ़ कीजिये और अपनी सोच बदलिए ."On hearing this interaction I just wanted to clap and cheer her for her apt response!
One of my colleagues rues the fact her kid who is dark-skinned is always taunted by close family members for his colour.What a terrible way to hurt someone's self esteem!My husband is quite fair and was handsome when I married him(not that he isn't now!).I am much darker than him.One day one of my sisters who is quite fair herself jokingly asked him," How did you agree to marry her,she is so dark?"To this my hubby replied,"My father was very fair and my mother was dark-skinned yet he married her.She was a gem of a person.After my fathers untimely death when I and my siblings were very young ,my mother brought us up single-handedly and instilled all the right values in us One's colour is not important,it's what inside us that really counts,."
It is high time that we learn to live without the prejudices of colour. The world is already reeling under the barriers of caste,religion,class,language and race.We surely don't want to add colour to that ,do we??Let us teach our children to have unbiased views of persons without being influenced by colour or any other attributes.Let us learn to value people for what they are and not their skin colour. After all,we should remember that beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder.
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