Copper Maiden

 A fair skinned girl arrived, in an unpompous fashion, at a bus stop. But still, it made some men and few aunties look obliquely or directly at her. I was a mere spectator waiting to become a passenger in a bus that was so late that it seemed to be coming straight from a tour around the moon. Anyway, not getting digressed like the ‘Lost Bus’, I’ll come back to the bus-stop scene. So, I then ran my bored imagination to analyze that ‘Fair Maiden’s face. I toned down her skin complexion in my mind, and I realized that she wouldn’t have been attractive otherwise. I then saw another pretty-faced female with a dusky complexion standing a little far from the ‘Fair Maiden’, who had attracted some stares but not as much as the ‘Fair-Maiden’. And I was wonder-struck.

 I then recalled how every time,  my parents shower go-gaga-like appreciation on fair skinned females. “Itni gori hai ki haath lagao toh maili ho jaogi. Itni sunder hai wo.”(“So fair she is that if touched, her skin will get dirty. So beautiful she is.”)

Now I may comply, not literally, with their first phrase-like-statement on the degree of her fairness, but not always on the second statement. My parents here actually represent a large strata of our society having such mindset regarding beauty. In India, there’s an inexplicable nexus between fairness and beauty. No wonder, ubiquitous skin-lightening beauty products like ‘Fair & Lovely’, ‘Ponds White’ and now even 'Fair & Handsome’ flourish in market. Their advertisements depict depressed, dark-complexioned women, who had been ignored by employers and men, suddenly finding new boyfriends and glamorous careers after the cream had lightened their skin. And many such racist advertisements which further promote color based racism. And this is how the desperation to get fair prevails in the bourgeois. In here we come up with anti-tanning lotions and creams, whereas in west, they proudly boast their holiday-tan, sun beach-tan, artificial tan….

My grand grand father was a domineering 'zamindaar' (landlord) with three wives and many sons. But he got my grand-father married to my grand-mom just because she had a fair complexion. She in fact hailed from the poorest of the families residing in his village.

Though many Bollywood actresses have successfully fostered dark-beauty relationship, the long-living marriage of fairness-beauty is yet to be divorced!!

Fair skin is a traditional standard of beauty in many parts of the world. Often, those of upper class in past ages were not exposed to sunlight, as they didn't have to work in fields, thus, fair skin was associate with wealth, and since the wealth set the standards for beauty, pale skin was in. Also, probably it’s about the basic human nature; wanting something which we do not have.
In India people are usually dark-skinned or even dusky and so they aspire to become fair, whereas in west where people are fair skinned, they go for tanning for some reason. May be to look less pale. Similarly females with wavy or curly hair aspire to have straight hair and get them artificially straightened and those with straight hair, at times get bored and get them curled up!! That’s why, perhaps even in relationships, people have come up with ‘opposites attract’ logic.

Sadly even I fall in the category of those females who complain of getting tanned under the sun.

Nevertheless, this doesn't stop me from looking outwards towards those who promote such attitude towards complexion. 

In matrimonial section, one can find many advertisements wanting a fair bride. In fact beauty is supposed to be only skin deep. But I guess it’s just a proverb. What makes those adds more ridiculous is the fairness-beauty-lovely relation!!

Now, another thought flashes across my restless mind. Though Taj Mahal is known for its architecture, I still wonder what if it were coal-black? Would the ‘Copper-Maiden’ still be proudly boasted of as one of the wonders of the world then? 

                                              How grateful I am to the man, his kith and kin

                                                    To his gods and goddesses, all fair-skinned

                                                How much I appreciate the flowers, the sky

                                                    All of it is colorful and not just white

                                                How feeble I would be without the dark in the night

                                                    Everything need not be only bright

                                                How graceful I look in this mirror

                                                    Then why is it just my complexion that is noticed by those eyes?

                                                I too can be an angel and fly high

                                       I’m a Copper Maiden and virtuous, all right!!

Image link: http://fineartamerica.com/featured/copper-maiden-gunter-erik-hortz.html