A jewelry house has chosen a fair skinned actress over a dusky one, thus sparking off a major debate over prejudice based on the color of one’s skin while the average Indian gasps at this grave injustice while buying the latest fairness cream from the kirana shop.

It is an age-old phenomenon. Things ‘lighter’ on the eye are always more dear to the heart. The stereotypes signify the same. The protagonists in myth are always fair or medium complexioned while the baddie usually gets to be dark and ugly. Somehow dark and ugly were made for each other. Ever heard of fair and lovely rakshasas? Or the glowing skins of the brave slaves. Fair skin was reserved for royalty. Well, in most of the cases.

We, as a country are obsessed with fairness. The amount spent by Indian women and Indian men (in hiding) on turmeric, whitening creams, fairness essences and anything, which says ‘glowing’ in any part of its slogan is humongous. If the same is contributed to the Infrastructure Development Fund, Mr. Chidambaram is going to be a happy man and you can take out your childhood bike parked in the pothole on the road which was going to be filled someday.

Coming back to the topic, even fiction reiterates the same and so do the movies. The ‘gaon ki gori’ is the ‘dil ki dhadkan’ of all the village dudes. So what did ‘Gaon ki sanwli’, ‘Gaon ki Kali’ and the likes do? They settled for arranged marriages, I guess.

Marriages, hmmm…. Read one of the matrimonial sections in a magazine and you would find ‘Wanted, fair-skinned, homely, blah blah’ in the brides’ section. The bridegrooms concentrates on ‘Wanted well-settled, regular income…’ conveniently missing out on the skin color of the guy. Of course, tall, dark and handsome is the dream version of a guy and if you get atleast the ‘dark’ adjective in a prospective bridegroom, you must be happy, I think.

Such grave injustice. So what do the dusky and dark skinned folks do? Well, going by recent ‘stately happenings’, we declare a war on the ‘fair-skinned’ people. We break some cars, throw some soft drink bottles in their houses (after drinking the beverage, of course) and shout slogans whenever we are bored.

Or we could have rewrite our lyrics like ‘Kaaliya, chura na mera jiya’, ‘Sanwle sanwle mukhde pe kaala kaala chashma; and the likes. Lug around bottles of tanners and bronzers and throw them at people who say ‘Try this, this will make you fair’. Say that dusky skin is in.

Of course, the ‘Gores’ have it bad too. Talk about sunburn, Holi color that shines on the face for a month, going pink when you blush, going red when you cry, going purple when you are bruised, going red again when the pimple shines, well, a lot of colors that don’t constitute fair. They don’t have it that easy afterall.

Jokes apart, the skin is after all, an organ. And a clean one is the one that signifies good health and prosperity, not one that is fair or dark. And melanin concentration does not make you special. Fair or dark, true ability is what will make you glow at the end of the day.