Yeah, I am dark. So now I shall go and lock myself away in a dungeon and never come out to face sunlight ever again. NOW, would ppl stop asking me, WHY I am dark ?? It is true that ppl in US can’t still accept a black person to lead them. But black people in US are of a different ethnicity. Here all of us are tamil and the person/family asking me why I am dark would most probably be a tad bit of a better complexion.
Now let me explain why I am bombarded with this question like forever. My dad isn’t dark as dark as I am, My mom ain’t, my grandpa or grandma aren’t(both sides), my great grand parents weren’t (I’ve heard about how they turn rosy cheeked in the sun). SO.. What should I do?? Do gene study and find from where I inherited this COLOUR??
Most families I meet with my parents, with all the sympathy they can muster, Oh!! Why is that your kids are dark, when both of you’ll aren’t. Oh, yes, I would still be living and sitting and breathing in the same room. Then my parents just smile, I being the jabber mouth I am, Laugh out real loud (the fakest one that I can muster), and say stuff like, I know!! I know!! I have always asked them if I was adopted. Ha Ha Ha!! (the two families join in the fun). Thanks to me!!
Some of them ditch the sympathy part and ask of it in a way where their face is all concorted like “Are you really their daughter”. Some just assume that I wouldn’t be offended at all and tell me how my mom and I look sooooooo different, like how much more beautiful she is coz she is fair. Yes, they say the exact same thing.
Mad ppl!! I am actually so used to this by now, that even before anybody gets all ’squinting.. in concentration’ I just tell them.. Yeah yeah I am their daughter and yes I am darker than them. Thank you and spare me the embarrassement. Now the whole thing starts working reverse. No No, you look so beautiful. It doesn’t matter if you are dark. All that matters is that you are beautiful on the inside.
Oh cut the crap!! Take a look at the papers that advertise for marriages. A fair, beautiful girl needed for marriage. Caste no bar. On reading the whole section once (No!! I dont read it regularly), I found that I’d never get married if I applied to any place coz nobody wants me. Brilliant huh!! This is not a malady that can be cured or that needs to be cured. But it just sucks that people sympathise with you since you are dark.
To buy a saree you need to try on a million darn shades before SOMETHING.. heck.. looks nice on you. I can’t wear colours that are too dark or too light, so I have to go get these really mid shades.. which aren’t so bright or too earthy. Basically it limits my options to 1000’s as opposed to the millions that are available.
Cosmetics.. Thats a cool story too. Someday.. Some guy woke up and decided that fair is beauty and from then on, FAIR IS BEAUTY. So these firms like HLL and P&G decided.. ok.. lets make some money on this guys theory. We’ll sell creams that make those who are not beautiful TRY…to be beautiful. And thus happened the history of Fairness creams.
One girl dared to tell me that I needn’t wax ever, since my hands are dark enough already. It is just so routine now for me that I barely let the words reach my head. Even I do it.. “Can you believe that this girl made out with that guy. I mean she is so dark, how did she manage to rope that guy for herself.” All of us do it. It surprises us if a dark girl makes it in the top 5 of Miss World. Our brains are trained to do that. To look down upon something. The content of Melanin in a person’s skin unfortunately seems to give us reason enough.
I have tried not to care about it. Succeeded most of the times. Sometimes it gets to ur head faster than booze. But I HAVE to do it, coz the world ain’t gonna change any time soon, best I just stop caring.
