Dark vs Fair

Even in this era, where we talk about India progressing, it being one of the most progressive country, but how much ever the country succeeds, people will still judge by your skin colour!

Why do we tend to forget that, the best of the people who represent India at an international level have mostly been people who are dark skinned; be it Indian actors, actresses, models who are internationally known, are dark skinned.

My recent encounter with ‘so called’ fair skinned inquisitive aunty left me speechless. The encounter took place in the flight from Dubai to New Delhi

At the waiting lounge

The Inquisitive Aunty: Kahan ja rahi ho? (Where are you going?)

Me: New Delhi

The Inquisitive Aunty: Mein bhi wahin ja rahin hoon (I am also going there)

Me: Acha (ok)

The Inquisitive Aunty: Tum kahan se ho? (Where are you from?)

Me: New Delhi

The Inquisitive Aunty: Acha, lagti to tum Bengali ho (You look like a Bengali)

Me: Mein waise south Indian hoon….before I could finish my statement…

The Inquisitive Aunty: Acha, tum mallu ho (ok, you a Mallu)

Me: Nahin, Mein Chennai se hoon (No, am from Cheenai)

The Inquisitive Aunty: Same thing hai. Dono jageh ke log ek jaise dikte hain (it’s the same thing. People from these two places, look alike)

This is where I lost my patience…how can people, even now, don’t know where the states are in their own country. And these are the people who would rattle names of places in Amreka (America).

Me: Aunty, mujhe pata nahin tha, kerela aur Chennai ek ho gaya hai. (Aunty, I didn’t know Kerala and Chennai have become a single state)

I think she didn’t get the sarcasm, because she replied….

The Inquisitive Aunty: Arre, abhi tak tho nahin hua (its not happened yet)

This is not the only time, where we dark skinned people are put through this. The latest Fair and lovely for men advertisement is also a mockery towards darker skin people. Why is that, a man has to be fair to get a job. Is it like saying, that dark skinned people are not accepted by people? Why are models in the adverts, shown to crib about their skin colour, if they are dark? Am I wrong in saying; it’s the dark skinned people, who have time and again made Indians proud in all and different walks of life. Then why are we trying to make them feel conscious by airing such adverts? Is it like saying, that if you are fair, you are more confident? Honestly, I totally disagree. If that were the case then we would never have darker people in the glamour industry.

I just hope the mentality of Indians will change some day… and am really waiting for that day!

(Pictures: Courtesy Google)

Zest to keep fit!

To those who think I will be writing about what it takes to keep fit or the growing understanding amongst Indians and in India, for staying fit; you are totally wrong… This piece is about the love for staying FIT amongst people in Dakar, Senegal.

I have moved from India to Dakar and its been quite a while that I have been intending to write about the enthusiastic people in Dakar. I use the word enthusiastic to describe their eagerness to stay fit.

When I was in India, I remember holding an unending debate about staying fit. Forlornly, I had always heard people say that people went to gym to lose weight. Even though I had tried convincing them and changing their preconceived notion about gym, but in vain. They would just refuse to accept the fact that gyming is not just about losing weight but to also stay fit. Gym is not only for people, who want to shed weight, but its also for those who would like to maintain their weight. I personally, have always felt refreshed after gyming, have always achieved mental peace, when I walked out of the gym. I use to feel so refreshed, felt as if, the day could start again! But alas, I could never rub off the feeling in others in India.

I met my likes in Dakar, who too loved exercising.

The day I landed in Dakar, the first thing I thought was “wow, people are so FIT”. Back in my school days, I always thought, Africans are genetically thin, but now I know, I was wrong.

The drive to our house made me think so different; I could see people jogging down the road…. The popular myth, that we can only workout in the mornings or in the evening was also proved wrong. In Dakar, I have seen people exercising at all odd time of the day; in short, you would always see someone or other working out, during the day.

To people here, exercising doesn’t just mean, hitting the gym and sweating it out. At ever corner, wherever there is a little space, you would see people exercising. Hence, the fact that you can only exercise in a gym is totally wrong.

When you drive down the cornice road in Dakar, you would notice people working out on ‘very different’ looking weight training equipments. I was quite curious to see those equipments. One day, I just walked down to beach to have a look. I was totally surprised at what I saw. The chest press equipment (don’t know, what should I really call them), was basically a bench to lie down on, tree trunk used as the chest press rod and car tyres as weights. Wow… is an understatement. For triceps training, they either used the car types or tree trunk. Running on the sand helped them build their thigh muscles….

The sight just put me to shame. I had always thought, you could never build your muscles, if you didn’t have proper weight training equipments.

Way to goooooo people… hats off to you guys!