‘Fair’ aint all that is ‘Lovely’!

The thought for this post sprung to mind after a free-wheeling chat on India’s rapidly degenerating TV scene, with Arun and Darshan, two fellow AIDers. Arun brought up what I deem to be among the most deplorable ads to have ever been aired on TV – the one of Fair and Lovely wherein it is projected that being dark-coloured is tantamount to being ugly, to the extent that it becomes a source of everyday embarrassment! In a nation/society getting increasingly vocal against racial profiling (look no further than the the amply televised assaults on Indian students Down Under), I’d have expected rubbish like this to have met with a fierce furore. Instead, it’s got away utterly unscathed.

In defense of the ad-makers, they can’t be charged with sparking this phenomenon into existence. Color-based discrimination has been around for as long as I can remember. Beauty may be skin-deep, but the coupling of color with it runs far deeper, inflicting profound social trauma upon many an innocent female. What adds insult to the injury is the irony that a non-trifling chunk of the people who are party to this, are quite magnanimous in their appreciation of foreign black celebrities like Will Smith and Naomi Campbell! But, then, this is not the first or the only instance of our intellectual slavery of the west.

Staying with abysmal ads, Darshan had pointed out a Nokia one implying that a low-end black-and-white phone is a possession to hide! Such messages intensify the stress and stigma of a good deal of people from financially modest and rural backgrounds, especially given that they are anyhow ill-at-ease in our media/TV set-up that idolizes ‘coolness’ – a term which is synonymous, to a great degree, with the possession of wealth-flaunting gadgets, overshooting the actual technological need many times over.

Coolness has also become another word for aping the US. I’ve never made light of the truism that the US and its people do plenty of stuff right (dignity of labour, for instance), but there exists ample evidence to back me up when I say that the Americans are the most reckless spenders of resources. Yet, that’s the first aspect of their going about their business, being imbibed by us. Wouldn’t we be much better off emulating their insistence on ‘originality of thought’ here? For every single product, it is being hammered onto our minds that luxury is the only way ahead, with no regard to [energy/fuel] efficiency and frugality aimed at [resource/climate] sustainability. Here’s hoping that we, the rational youth, straighten out the trend of falling pray to these gimmicks which (purposely) overlook the most fundamental tenets of cause-and-effect.