When my dark skin ruled me out

I hate this fairness attachment people have in India. We are not alone, a big chunk of the world has this same irrationality. I am not upset because I am a self respecting well toasted Indian brown but because it upsets me to think there is a multi billion dollar industry that finds in base in women's insecurities ( of late sissy men too). To keep the fairness cream business growing they sow into our lives more images for "white is beautiful". So what are they telling us ? If your skin isn't white - you are incomplete,you are deficient, inadequate - no success will make your life bright unless....darling you are white !

Well...as a child i was called Batman by some boys, not because i had any prowess, but because i was so dark. Sun and i were best friends and we played so much together i was burnt to a crisp. Thin as a twig, hair in a mess, dirt and mud was always part of my make up,as a sports out and outer. The definition of a Tomboy was me. I played with little white girls who looked like delicate porcelain dolls. India has all shades of colours. White as white as Caucasians, dark as dark as black and 50 shades of brown. Trust me - we invented that range called 50 shades and it was stolen later by that author am sure :-). So in a world of white looking kids there was me - rough, dark and totally not appealing. If someone said that I needed to be clean, tidy, wear my hair better i would have heeded but to tell me i was dark and ugly, you gotta be kidding, to expect me to listen to that ! But they didn't stop, just because i was not listening. One lady even told my mother to scrub me hard so the colour would hopefully run and the real me would be finally exposed !

Humiliation and ridicule can do 2 things...either it builds Fire or it kills you. Some develop this wild kind of fire that is missing in people who dint get kicked about growing up. This indomitable fire can consume whoever challenges its quake. It is when they burn you so bad that some become the Fire themselves. Colour bias, colour remarks, colour insults plagued my life. Now tell me if you are of sound common sense whether colour of your skin truly can determines who you are. I may be dark but if i care about ethics, if i am sensitive to human rights , if i uphold mankind above a holy book, if i stand by ideologies only if they are backed by logic, if peace means much, if wrong is condemned without the batting of an eye lid and if i have the courage to stand up and be honest.....how far did my colour influence my mind and my choices ? I was a dark child, a dark teen who grew lighter in time, as i grew taller and put on weight. Without ever- ever using any of those humiliating fairness creams and products my shade of color may have changed.

Truth is ....what made me the best I could be, were my Dark days !