Fair play

India is one of those countries with an obsession for "fair" skin... From matrimonial ads to face creams, the emphasis is on "fair" skin. For some weird reason, everyone wants to be "fair" or so the beauty markets assume. Which explains the large variety of fairness creams for sale in the market. If it's not enough that this vanity was associated just with the women in the past, these days it has extended to the men as well. I just saw an ad for Nivea men's fairness cream endorsed by the likes of Dhoni... and fortuitously, right after that I read this article on BBC, where Ms Authentica is crowned based on her natural skin and all contestants are verified by the organizers to have untreated and natural skin. Immediately, I wished that this concept took off in India too... we have a large spectrum of people occupying all the shades of colour possible and we have to be proud of what we're born with. Trying to change what is naturally ours, to blend in with what the world's view is, is not the solution to anything. Not in terms of skin colour, and not in terms of personality, not for anything. Instead, the world would be a better place if we embraced what was ours and made the most of it. Unfortunately in India, people are made to believe that having fairer skin is superior. Period. It's the age-old race war... where white trumps black. It's as simple as that. I applaud stars like Aishwarya Rai-Bachchan who have made conscious efforts not to endorse any of these "fairness" creams in an effort to globalize all skin tones and colours. And the fairness cream ads totally piss me off too - have you noticed how they show the quality of skin to dramatically improve as well when someone uses their product? And what's with the doors opening for their careers with "white" skin? It's all such BS and what's worse - people buy into it. I mean there are people with glowing skin with whatever colour. We don't have to go far to prove that dusky beauty is very real - look at Nanditha Das or Bipasha Basu for instance. And to think that we've transcended into the modern era... where one would've thought it was relatively easy to be who you are and get what you want with your charm/persona and not having to rely on something as fickle as fair skin. Embrace yourself.. that's what makes you glow from within... not any of these beauty propagandas or the likes of it. The rest of it is not fair.

5 shades darker

Don't you hate summer? All that skin colour that you slowly and steadily accumulated all through the torturous winters using moisturizers and what not, all gone within the flick of an eye-lid? It's like 4 days into hardcore summer with sweltering temperatures of 32°C (sorry, Parisian 32°C are nearly unbearable) and I have bronzed rather evenly. Gone are the days of fairness I say. I support Aiswarya Rai in her claim that all skin tones are beautiful. And if I have bronzed, so be it. Bronze is beautiful.