O thou art fairer….

Fairer underarms, Nivea Whitening Deo.  I switched off the TV. I could somehow bear the fairness cream advertisement few minutes earlier. But this was simply too much, beyond my tolerance.

There are a plethora of fairness products available in the market these days. You just name it and you will get plenty to choose from: cream, moisturizer, face wash, deo, talc, body lotion and so on. Pardon me, if I have forgotten to mention any other. I have lost the count actually.

Our country is obsessed with fairer whiter skin and the cosmetic companies have just hit the nail on the head. We are no more slaves to British but they left behind something disgusting.  WHITE IS BETTER THAN BLACK. We still look up to the goras and treat them as the superior species in the name of athithi devo bhava. Do you get a special treatment when you visit their country?

Look at the matrimonial advertisements in the newspapers "wanted slim fair educated bride". The matrimonial sites too are not far behind. The profile information seeks a field called "complexion". Take our daily TV soaps. Few of them are based on a girl with dark complexion; how the society treats her and how her skin colour takes an upper hand over her qualities. What do I say about the beauty pageants? Beauty with a purpose. Why are the most of the contestants usually tall, slim, attractive, good looking and fair? I can hardly think of any Bollywood actress who has a dark complexion, yet commercially successful and popular. It has been always the likes of Aishwarya, Kareena, Katrina, Priyanka etc who take away the applause.

We can’t really blame these cosmetic companies if they are milking profits out of the mindset of the people. Their advertisements more than often have a common theme: "Use our product and you will get an elusive groom, job or success". They are encashing on the most vulnerable emotions of the human nature.

As if this was not enough, we now have fairness products for men as well. I would not be surprised if these companies next bring out the fairness cream, soap, oil or body lotion for the babies!!!

A cousin of mine once argued that these fairness products give hope to a person. I countered argued that they raise a hope for a problem which people never knew existed in the first place. Plus this false hope brings harmful side effects with it.

If people are falling for such illusions, it is a drawback with their thinking. Shilpa Shetty cried "racial discrimination" in Celebrity Big Brother show. A little soul searching will make you realize that we all are racists somewhere in a small corner of our heart. Why don’t we respect an individual for a person s/he is rather than what skin colour s/he is?