Fair - Unfair

This is the story of my friend a very close friend. We were buddies we used to play together, eat together and study together. We were in same school and same class. Her name is Radha. She is tall, has a round face with very beautiful eyes.  She was intelligent and scored highest in board examination and won many scholarships. She worked hard day and night, completed studies and got a very deserving placement in a reputed firm. 

But with all these highs she had to bear the lowness entrusted upon her by the society. Her paternal aunt nicknamed her ‘Gulab Jamun’ as she loved them and she had a dark complexion. Her brother used to tease her that eating more of dark chocolate will further darken her complexion.  Many suitors refused marrying as her complexion didn’t matched their standards. Thus making her family members annoyed. Radha was ridiculed by her own near and dear ones.

With all this negativity surrounding her she has started feeling neglected. She is gradually falling into extreme state of dullness and melancholy.  Though I am there to support her at every step but how can I help her alone, it is very difficult as every other advertisement on television promotes fairness creams. These advertisements show that people of darker skin are losers with no happiness, no confidence and no friends, but fairer skin can make them stars overnight.

Adding to the horror is the people promoting such advertisement, they are so called youth icons, top celebrities, top brands whom we often hear talking about ‘equality’. Does publicizing fairness creams has anything to do with equality?

Even I am the one with a darker skin and have heard people teasing and making fun of my complexion but rather than getting nervous I pity on the limited understanding and perception of these people who associate fair skin with happiness and success.

It also gets really annoying whenever I am at supermarket purchasing cosmetics; I am always unnecessarily approached by these sales girls forcing me to try whitening creams and fairness products. But thankfully I have never tried any of them as I am happy with my complexion.

Success and happiness comes from our hard work and honest deeds. That is what I am following since childhood and will stick to it forever.

It is absolutely right that a healthy skin is an index to our overall health but it’s wrong to associate health skin with fair complexion.

People need to educate themselves, arise, awake from this limited reasoning. Instead of promoting useless things, encourage good health. Skin is the largest organ of our body, counsel people about healthy skin.

There are young girls I see around who have not even reached teenage, having extreme fetish for fair skin their icons are Kareen Kapoor, Katrina Kaif, not because of their hard work and determination but because these celebrity look perfect in fair skin.

Where are we heading to? Are we giving the coming generation some sort of restricted sensibilities?

We should stop advocating things that are harmful and start propagating values, good health, education and hard work. Doing so will indeed result in true happiness and a better world.