Single shade of white - Getaway Geeth

Now, this title is truly baffling, but it makes sense to me. I was around ten years old when I started noticing the need to have a certain type of skin tone. I was a medium complexion and any time I would hear someone describe a beautiful girl, it almost always started with the fairness of the skin, well some of the examples included for characterization were “she has the color of milk”, “He has the color of buttermilk” and so on and so forth till they compared them to all the dairy products known to the man-kind. So as a small kid I wanted to look beautiful, you know to impress them all, so I decided to go for it. I went to my parents room, took the talcum powder that I could find and lathered it all over my face. I did a fine job of covering the entire face with it quite evenly and looked at the mirror proudly.”Damn I look breathtaking” I thought to myself. I went around looking like the joker almost for a year. If I wanted to I could have shown you all a picture proof of my ghostly ten year old figure, but I simply don’t want to. During that time I made my mother plea to me to take the horrible thing off the face and my grandmother would go one step further by taking the tip of her saree to wipe it off when I am busy chugging down ice sticks. I think the force was strong on this one. Anyway I grew up and became less illusive. But that joker face kept screaming back whenever someone made a naïve or shrewd comment on the color of the skin.

But for some horrible reason, i liked what i saw in that joker. Eventhough it did not last a longer time my definition of beauty always lied with the skin tone. And the fair and lovely ads did not help either, i mean i could not imagine a guy rejecting me because i was not fair enough or losing out on an opportunity because I am not fair? Check out another ridiculous advertisement from the same company:

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So this inferiority complex about my skin tone changed around two years back after this particular incident. I was travelling from Bangalore to Trivandrum when I saw this mother and daughter sitting in my row , the mother was in the middle seat and the child near the window. I could see that the child was sitting in my seat and i let that pass and told the mother its completely fine and started rummaging through the front pouch when i saw the child through the corner of my eyes, her entire skin was peeling up and it was pink in color with red marks here and there. I realised that she is having a chronic condition and just smiled at her and pretended to be reading. In some time the child was getting uncomfortable and the mother kept on giving her wet wraps to keep on her face and while the mother was struggling to handle her hand bag and the child’s bag, I aided in keeping her handbag under my seat. The mother was extremely tired looking and soon she dosed off in her seat and that’s when I took a good look at the child. To my surprise she too were peeking to have a good glimpse of me and we both started smiling which would make her coyfully turn her head towards the window. By the end of the journey she and I even shared some laugh looking at her mother sleep. She was a very enthusiastic kid and kept asking me questions, until she threw me off with a compliment, that i had good skin. My heart literally broke into tiny pieces hearing her say that. At that moment i froze and did not even have anything to playfully tell her back. If i could re-live the moment i would have definitely told how beautiful her smile was. Here I am worried about my skin tone and zits(there is no getting out of that one this life) this girl is craving for a skin atleast as good as mine. That day i felt the same amount of shame as well as guilt wasting some part of my life worrying about something that is beyond and far from me.

I dont want to just blame the Indian mentality here, we can see it in the so called western culture the shocking truth of racism too. We are growing up in an environment where there is a constant talk about fairness being the ultimate measurement of beauty or good looks. Why?? I have seen many women/men who are dark skinned but so utterly beautiful, i have many women/men in my life who are the most charming and gorgeous people inside out. It should start with us, by making an environment for the new generation especially for the girls to grow up to understand the importance of healthy skin to fair skin and just to be grateful, for we all are beautiful, inside out.

Author: Lakshmi Geeth

I’m an ordinarily odd person who is pleasant to talk to. When I’m not trying to be funny, I would be lying on the floor bawling my eyes out. I write weird stories, real life snippets, traumatic and dramatic memories along with doses of unsolicited advices. 🙂