Thursday, September 27, 2007

the fair and the lovely

The entire “gora chamra” fixation is getting to me! With the pujas barely a month away, its amazing how nearly all my family have realized my “awful tan” and are trying their unusual best to get rid of mind, apart from the scores of fairness creams available in the market, my skin has gone through lengthy battles with multani mitti, chandan, besan, lemon, tomatoes and the like. Apart from being really, unhappy and irritated, I’m amazed to learn about everyone’s knowledge on getting “fairer” skin! Talk about prejudice!

To make things worse, last Sunday’s matrimonial column was far from its usual amusing self! Horrifyingly, every male in the country, starting from age 22 till maybe their last few days on earth, seem to be on a “heroic” quest – finding themselves the perfect Indian bride! Irrelevant of other qualities, the poor creature most definitely needs to be fair! For all one knows, the poor wretched NRI just might find himself stuck in an enclosure with his “perfect bride”, who not very surprisingly resembles a lump of lard and has brains perhaps lesser than a pea’s!

What exactly is the country coming to? What happened to respecting intelligence, charm and independence? Why do all Indian women have to feel so degraded for a patriarchal society’s perverse fetish? Why can’t women in search of a groom demand for some “fair and handsome” man, who’ll be “well built, educated and homely”?

In an act of rebellion, I have decided that t he next time someone comes close to commenting about my skin tone, I shall remind them of their age, wrinkles, et al! I shall remind them of the times their fair daughters came home crying cuz they were called “really stupid’ in school and of course, I shall gift their not so fair sons tubes of fairness creams!

And as for me, I’m perfectly sane… dark, short, ugly doesn’t really make a huge difference in my life! I’m happy the way I am… thank you! I’m an intelligent, successful woman and I don’t give a flying rat’s ass about achieving the “rare Indian beauty”! And everyone else, fair or dark, considering that you have a single brain cell, shouldn’t care either! Trust me, beauty can never be skin deep!!!

Pip! Pip!

6 doodles:

Sameer said...

...and you were supposed to sound "confused and ...misinformed!" :)

i second. make that a million and two.

onnesha said...

amen to that.
i have been there and done that.
so i know precisely how annoying it can be.
try nothing.let yourself be.
dark fair short plump pimply....whatever.
thats how we are.let none change that.

Safdar said...

i am an intelligent and successful woman. hehe.

loony girl said...

yes we all know safdar is an intelligent and successful woman!
:P

little boxes said...

Chanced upon ur blog through random browsing.its a nice space u have got here.this was the post which i loved the most...its crazier here in delhi.they think all bengali girls are dark and they assume all of them look like bipasha basu!and i can completely relate to the post,considering my mother and i are the only dark people in the family.we revel in our uniqueness

loony girl said...

little boxes, i am so sorry for replying so late.. i didnt really check on this one for long and the notification mail somhhw missed me eyes!
and its nice to see that u r proud of this! most ppl i know r busy layering make up on themselves and lookin even more ridiculous!