I watched as the father broke the news to his daughter. The alliance for her marriage had been rejected yet again. I observed dispassionately as she ran into her room and flung herself on the bed, sobbing bitterly. She was doomed to suffer that way. After all, she had committed one of the most abominable sins for a young girl.
She had been born with a dark complexion.
Enter Fairy Godmother. She compassionately assured the girl that all was not yet lost. She bestowed upon her, the blessing of the most wonderful kind- a tube containing a cream.
Not any cream, mind you, for this cream was to absolve the girl of all her sins.
Lo and behold! In front of my eyes, over the next 10 seconds, the girl progressively grew as fair as milk! Now suddenly there were guys falling all over each other wanting to marry her!
Hare Krishna!
I switched off the TV wearily. I mean, I don’t consider myself very intelligent, but this was as insulting as could be, even to my miniscule intelligence.
Just a couple of days ago, I had an opportunity to also see on TV, the above girl’s god-sister (girls who are followers of the same godmother). This girl was greatly depressed because she could not impress her parents by getting a job. The same magic cream had come to her aid and given her a peaches-and-cream complexion. Presto, she bagged a job as an air-hostess because of the same. Her parents’ eyes brimmed with tears of joy (and mine, with annoyance!) on seeing their suddenly fairer, lovelier and consequently...richer daughter!
If this wasn’t bad enough, now you have god-FATHERS trying to convince us guys that we must be a few shades fairer than what we are. They too urge us to become fairer and lovelier, with the promise of attracting beautiful girls like ants to sugar!
And all this despite the fact, that there is NO medical evidence to support the effectiveness of these creams.
On the contrary these products bleach the skin and frequent use can actually harm the skin over time! Skin cells contain Melanin that gives that dark colour to the skin. It actually protects the body by preventing sunburns and by maintaining the Vitamin B levels in the body. Interfering with the Melanin content of the skin can actually harm the body, causing in some cases, even skin cancer!
When I first saw the ads, I thought, who would fall for this hoax?
And yet the very next week, my visiting aunt related to us how her maid-servant ended up spending literally thousands of Rupees trying to become fairer and lovelier. With absolutely no effect on her dusky complexion.
Then I figured, if the cream companies can afford to spend millions of Rupees on their advertisements, and then spend even more on punishing us by showing the same ad several times a day, it must be a hugely profit making venture for them!
So while all the gullible girls and ladies in India continue to apply layer upon layer of these creams on their faces, in their eternal quest to become fairer and lovelier, the cream company owners are laughing all the way to the bank.
A few random thoughts also hit me:
If the above ladies were similarly bombarded with an ad featuring a Devotee, urging everyone to chant Hare Krishna once for every paisa that they spend on their creams, with the result that they would feel satisfied with the colour Krishna has given them, and never feel the need for those creams, how many of them would take up that offer...
Can we blame those ladies, for the cream companies ingrain and positively reinforce the misconception that to be dark-complexioned is the worst thing that can happen to you...
Can we blame those companies, for they merely feed our inherent obsession with our body, always seeking to beautify it. We forget that we are not our bodies; our bodies are just our temporary clothing for this life. So then does it really matter if we are supposed to wear dark or light coloured clothes for this short period of time?
If we concentrated on beautifying our interior (character and nature) through spiritual advancement, instead of our exterior, the world would be, perhaps not a fairer, but definitely a lovelier place...
Finally, Isn’t it interesting, that the most attractive Person in the Universe, nay, all of Creation, is dark complexioned?
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