This idea came to my mind when I was reading a blog entry at mutiny.in
Fortunately or unfortunately I was born dark skinned. Well, that was not in my control 
But the aftermath that makes this story interesting. We all know that our parents love us no matter what we are or how we are. But we just don’t live with our parents throughout our life right? We have to become part of the society and there will be people all around.
People judge you based on different factors. Unfortunately in India, few people judge you based on your skin color. It has nothing to do with your caste, religion or region. Simple plain skin color.
I used to get comments from people that I am dark skinned. That is still okay. Because that’s what the truth is. But they won’t stop there. They will give you suggestions on how to become light skinned. That makes you feel as if you are from some other planet. If they give you that suggestion when you are old enough to understand about skin color then it is still acceptable. But if they pass those comments on a kid, you can imagine the impact.
Take my case, I used to feel bad about myself after I heard those comments and suggestions. I wanted to become light skinned. But how ? I haven’t had answer for that question for years. But when TV became part of our lives in 90′s I have found a solution sent by God – “Fair & Lovely”.
By looking at those ads I used to feel that I will become light skinned after using that product for six weeks. I bought that forcing my parents, used it and look in the mirror every day to see the progress. OK. The time passed and six weeks of sweet time is over. Looking at the mirror, I used to feel that there is some improvement.
But there are times I missed applying the Jesus Cream and whenever I miss it I had that fear of “darkness” growing in my mind. This continued for years.
I lived almost 20 years of my life with that obsession to become fair skinned. At some point of life, I have realized that my personality that makes the difference and not my skin color. Thanks to my friends. That is the real turning point. I became more self confident, completely stopped caring about becoming fair and started to think about a better human being.
Still it irks me whenever I thinks of that ad from Fair & Lovely about a girl getting rejected because of her dark skin and then miraculously becomes fair skinned beauty and smiles at the stupid guy who rejected her. In fact she should laugh at that AH when he rejects her. That’s the fair game. No more fairness game.
